Please stop laughing at me – I’m not the Cheshire Cat burglar!
BlACK hat, stubbly chin and a huge toothy grin... these two smiling chaps look suspiciously similar.
But while one is the distinctive e-fit of a suspected burglar police are hunting in Warwickshire, the other is a law-abiding landscape photographer from Devon.
Friends of Richard Fox, 43, pointed out his uncanny resemblance to the wanted man after the e-fit sparked hilarity when it was published online last week.
And Mr Fox has now been forced to reassure people that he is not the suspect in question. The picture of the alleged burglar was posted by officers on social media last week. It then went viral as people mocked the enormous mouth the e-fit had been given. He even became known as the ‘Cheshire Cat burglar’ because of the big toothy smile.
Mr Fox, who runs a photography business in Bovey Tracey, said: ‘I didn’t see the [police] post until my friend tagged me in it on Twitter.
‘I think it’s because I’ve got a big mouth. I also wear the hat a lot as I’m a landscape photographer – so I’m often out on Dartmoor taking pictures.’ Warwickshire Police put the image out after a distraction burglary in which a man conned his way into a woman’s flat in Stratford-upon-Avon and stole cash in February.
Mr Fox confirmed he definitely had not been involved, adding: ‘I’ve never been to Warwickshire and it certainly wasn’t me.’
But aware of the amusing similarity, he took a photo of himself posing like the man in the e-fit and posted it on Twitter with the jokey caption: ‘looks nothing like me.’ The police image has been shared thousands of times online with one amused man tweeting: ‘Was it his milewide grin that distracted people?’