The alert was raised by several members of the public yesterday afternoon when they spotted what they believed to be a live white tiger in a field near Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire.
The police helicopter was scrambled and a golf course cleared after police arrived at the scene and confirmed the sighting.
Armed police were called to the scene in case the animal came too close to members of the public.
Specialist staff from nearby Marwell Zoo also attended to advise and potentially tranquilise the wild animal.
A local golf course was evacuated and plans were put in place to close the nearby M27 motorway if necessary in case the tiger moved in that direction.
But as police officers carefully approached the "wild animal" they realised it was not moving and the helicopter crew, using thermal imaging equipment, realised there was no heat source coming from it.
A spokeswoman for the force said: "After a brief stalk through the Hedge End savannah, the officer realised the tiger was not moving and the air support using their cameras realised there was a lack of heat source.
"The tiger then rolled over in the down draft and it was at that point it became obvious it was a stuffed life-size toy.
"This incident will definitely be the highlight of our day. The CCTV footage convinced us all we were dealing with a real tiger.
"It's not often an incident leaves our staff with a smile on their face and it just goes to show the diverse type of incident we are called to deal with."
Releasing a photo of the toy tiger, a force spokeswoman said:
"The toy tiger is life-size and is like one that you would win at a fair.
"It is being treated as lost property but we don't know how it came to be in the field and whether it may have been a hoax."
- Story taken from http://www.thesun.co.uk/
Hahah, dang. I thought the picture was a real tiger for a moment there, not surprised they thought it was real at a distance.
ReplyDeleteHahaha that's epic! Fragile humans SMH.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess it's better than them thinking it's a stuffed toy and it goes on a kiddy eating rampage :P
ReplyDeleteHaha this reminds me of that time when the police had to track and shoot a crock somewhere in the US... turned out to be a statue to scare kids off the yard whehehe
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Tigers are awesome.
ReplyDeletewow that is a lot of fail XD
ReplyDeletelol i thought it was real too. omg. so many people got involved into that.. someone must be having a good laugh.
ReplyDeletelooks exactly like a real tiger. funny stuff
ReplyDeleteWhoever pulled off this prank probably thinks that they're G-g-g-g-g-g-reat!
ReplyDeleteheh from a distance it kind of looks like a real tiger, i guess you can't blame them.
ReplyDeletehuge waste of resources, but pretty funny that it happened
ReplyDeletei guess since i dont pay taxes in england it is a net gain for me, hah
haha wow some people really are idiots
ReplyDeletethats crazy :P followed
ReplyDeleteWoah, that's pretty pathetic. :/
ReplyDeleteTiger's man... they are serious problems real or fake you gotta get em before they evolve into a Liger and become unstoppable.
ReplyDeletehahaha how stupid, funny read
ReplyDeletefollowed!
ahahaha, how does this happen?
ReplyDeleteLol, there was something like that here, these cops were called out to a property that had a small pond because there was an alligator sitting near the edge. Because it was really close to a residential area they decided to just shoot it from the distance. The cop shot it twice and nothing happened, when they checked the body it was a concrete statue lol
ReplyDeleteIt looks real until you look at the rounded off paws with no nails. You would hope that they would send someone from the force down to get visual evidence themselves next time before launching a full on helicopter attack.
ReplyDeleteHow is it even possible not to spot it from a normal one. That's just pathetic!
ReplyDeleteat first hilarious but when you think about it it's sad
ReplyDeleteFunny story, I thought it was real at first.
ReplyDeletelol they all got fooled, i remember having one of these!
ReplyDeleteHow could they mistake it a being real? This is absurd.
ReplyDeleteI remember this from HIGNFY. America is crazy!
ReplyDeleteThat's hysterical! They actually called a helicopter in!
ReplyDeleteWOW I have the exact same tiger in my bedroom and I won it at a local fair when I was a kid (13 years old)
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing I wonder if the police in Belgium will do the same :)
see profile pic :D
ReplyDeleteLol! that is hilarious! Who ever did that, you're a hilarious person :D
ReplyDeleteMan I'm tired
ReplyDeleteI didn't even realize the pic of the tiger was fake until 5 seconds after reading the title, lol.
This is just plain good comedy! Good thing their police force can take a joke. :)
ReplyDeleteHow could that cute feline scare anything?!
ReplyDeleteThat tiger looks awesome. It would look even more awesome in my living room. Damnit, now I want one...
ReplyDelete