A dead body in my boot? Er, it’s a wedding dress, bemused bride tells armed cops
IN the run-up to her big day, brideto-be Beth Jack kept the details of her dress a closely guarded secret.
But keeping her gown under wraps almost saw her spend her big day in a cell after it was mistaken for a body being loaded into a car, sparking an armed police response.
The night before her wedding, the 26-yearold had wrapped the dress in a duvet to protect it and had loaded it into the boot of her car.
Later, armed police descended on her home after a neighbour thought she was moving a corpse and dialled 999.
Luckily, Mrs Jack was able to clear up the misunderstanding in time to wed husband Jordan in Didcot, Oxfordshire, on Saturday.
Mr Jack’s mother Anita, from Dunferm- line, Fife, joked that her son should watch his back.
She said: ‘I’ve warned him that he needs to be careful now. If she’s done it once, she could do it again.
‘You could not make it up. It’s unbelievable. It’s a story that will be told for years to come. We were all stunned and could not believe what was happening.
‘I had never seen the dress before the day, so I didn’t know how long it was, but she had wrapped it in a duvet to protect it in the car so it wasn’t damaged.
‘Never in a million years could I have imagined this. To think someone thought her wedding dress was a dead body is crazy.’
The couple, who live in Swindon, Wiltshire, married the following day and are now honeymooning in Tanzania.
Mrs Jack, with the help of her chief bridesmaid, was moving her dress from her home to the car while Mr Jack, 28, and both families were out enjoying a meal last Friday evening.
As the bride made her way to the wedding venue to spend the night, the groom received a call which he believed was a prank by friends.
Swindon Major Incidents Unit informed him that specialist firearms officers had raided a property to gain access to his home next door.
Thankfully, any fears of Mrs Jack going down the police station rather than the aisle were avoided as the groom explained the misunderstanding.
Neighbour Scott Goodman, 28, said he was shocked by the events.
He added: ‘The response was pretty rapid. It did seem that something serious had gone down, the way they rolled up and were knocking on doors.
‘I was completely unaware until the police came and knocked on the door. They were asking me about one of the residents and what kind of vehicle they drive.
‘It wouldn’t have been the most intelligent crime. The whole thing was daft. Lifting up a body – you’d think somebody would be really struggling with it.
‘I think the person who reported it probably needs a psychiatric evaluation. Sometimes you do get some pretty wild and crazy police activity round here. This was a huge reaction.’
A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: ‘We were called just after 5pm on July 27 to an initial report from a passer-by that two women had been seen loading what was believed to be a body into the boot of a vehicle.
‘Inquiries established that the women were in fact loading a wedding dress into the vehicle. No arrests were made and no crimes committed.’
The couple became engaged while on holiday in Mexico in May 2016.
‘You could not make it up. It’s unbelievable’