‘Keystone Cops’ in war memorial bungle
Appeal issued after stolen plaques had been returned
Saturday 3 auguSt 2013 BLUNDERING police appealed for information about stolen war memorials six days after they had been handed back into a neighbouring station.
The Tayside division of Police Scotland was criticised as being “worse than Keystone Cops” after contacting the very person who handed them in, and asking him to keep an eye out.
The commemorative plaques had been stolen from the Orwell War Memorial, in Milnathort in Kinross-shire. They were then handed back in by a publicspirited scrap dealer to his local police station on Wednesday, 24 July.
Mark Stewart chased off the metal thieves when they tried to sell the plaques at his scrapyard in East Wemyss, and handed them over to the police station at Methil.
However, he revealed he was then telephoned on Tuesday by officers from the station at Kinross, in neighbouring Tayside, asking him to keep a look out.
“They are worse than the Keystone Cops,” he said. “It’s like they’re just not communicating with each other.
“I took the plaques off the thieves at 8:30am, last Wednesday and the police had them by 9:30am.
“It’s beyond belief. I was trying to tell the police I had already handed the plaques over and nobody would listen. I tried phoning the police stations at Methil and Kinross, the CID, and tried to get in touch with the officer dealing with the theft.”
Mr Stewart also spoke of his fury at the people who would try to sell stolen war memorial plaques.
“I realised right away that the plaques had been stolen,” Mr Stewart said. “As soon as I picked them up and I read the names on the plaques I chased them from the yard, telling them they were filthy thieving b*******.
“I knew the plaques were off a war memorial, but at that time I didn’t know where they were from.”
The Tayside division of Police Scotland only announced on Thursday that the three stolen plaques had been recovered in Fife and that inquires were continuing. A force spokesman said: “It transpires that, at the time the theft was reported to police officers in Tayside, colleagues in Fife had already recovered the stolen property.
“This information did not come to light immediately but it, along with further significant information, has now resulted in officers following positive lines of inquiry.”
However, Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: “The claims from (Justice Secretary) Kenny MacAskill that bringing police forces together would somehow streamline the crime-fighting service in Scotland have been shown up by this revelation.”