A roaring Saturday night for police in 45-minute stand-off... with a toy tiger
ARMED police became involved in a 45-minute stand-off with a toy tiger after a frightened farmer mistook it for the real thing.
Bruce Grubb, 24, called police after spotting the big cat in a dimly-lit shed full of pregnant cows.
He feared it was going to attack his livestock and police, including an armed unit, turned up at his farm in Hatton, Aberdeenshire.
Mr Grubb said he only began to have doubts when it remained immobile for 45 minutes. Driving his truck slowly towards the beast, he finally realised he was looking at a large stuffed toy.
Police Scotland said they were regarding it as a “false call made with genuine good intent”, and joked on Twitter that their officers had a “roaring shift” on Saturday night.
They left the farm with the tiger, telling an embarrassed Mr Grubb they wanted to keep it as a mascot. The young farmer, who was having a housewarming party at the time after moving into the farm’s cottage three weeks ago, said: “I feel a bit silly for calling the police but I thought it was a real emergency. We’re laughing about it now but it was very scary at the time.”
He said he had no idea who left the toy in the dark cowshed, adding: “I had absolutely no doubt it was real. I got a hell of a scare. I was worried it was going to eat all my cows before police managed to shoot it.” He added that he had not been drinking at the housewarming party as the cows could have given birth at any time. He also claimed the first officer on the scene “refused to get out of the squad car”.
Insp George Cordiner said officers received a call from an “extremely concerned member of the public” about a wild animal being loose in the grounds of a farm.
He added: “Unusual as the call may have seemed, any call reporting a potential danger to the public has to be taken seriously and efforts were made to verify the sighting as soon as possible, including starting to make contact with the nearest wildlife park to make sure they did not have an escapee.
“As is standard practice when we are made aware of a potential threat to the public, the use of firearms officers was considered as a contingency.
“In this case, they attended the area in support of the local community officers but they were not deployed nor were they required.”