Doofus Of The Day #662

Today's winner is from England.

When police received reports of an armed man in a residential street, they acted immediately, deploying a crack team of 15 officers sporting bullet-proof vests and machine guns.

So they were less than amused when the man turned out not to be wielding a concealed weapon but a sex toy.

And jurors at Shrewsbury Crown Court appeared to share their concern when the man was jailed for five years after admitting possessing an item with the appearance of a handgun with intent to cause fear of violence.

. . .

Other residents on the street were astonished by the arrival of the “Robocops”, but the operation descended into farce when they seized the weapon, only to discover he had in fact been “brandishing” a silver sex aid.

Jailing Poulton on Wednesday, Judge Robin Onions said: “It was clearly not a gun, be it imitation or real. It was an entirely innocent object. [But] it was the defendant’s intention to deceive.

“Witnesses thought it was a firearm so he has to take the consequences.”

Speaking at the time of the incident, a neighbour said: “I think this is what you might call a classic cock-up.

“Nobody could believe what they were seeing when these armed Robocops turned up on the street from nowhere. Hadley can be a tough area but it’s not that bad, surely?

“Then we heard them arresting this guy and he was screaming to his girlfriend to hand over the sex toy. It was unbelievable.”

There's more at the link.

Of all the phrases I never, ever expected to hear in connection with law enforcement, "hand over the sex toy" has to be near the top of the list!  That's a "cock"-up, indeed!





Peter