Considering just how chaotic a police scanner can become when the crime lords decide to
hit the streets, we can't fault the boys in blue for
showing up at the wrong address or completely missing a shoplifter with a
projector in his shorts, but this one's just absurd. Apparently, a Manchester man had his home invaded by squads of armed police after a pistol-wielding Lara Croft mannequin served as cause for concern. The officials mistook the ominous silhouette for an actual gunman, and took it upon themselves to rush in and attempt to save the day. Interestingly, the homeowner was actually arrested for "suspected firearms offense," but he's currently speaking to lawyers about "a possible claim for wrongful arrest." Man, publicly humiliating yourself
and begging for a lawsuit -- now that's a
full day's work.
[Thanks, Dan G.]
posted May 16th 2007 7:39PM
Then possibly large boobs should have made onlookers think otherwise.
You mean "impossibly" large.
RIP Lara. You will be missed
KP
So is this one of these cases were the police will have to "confiscate" Laura as evidence for the night?
"mistook the ominous silhouette for an actual gunman".... ummm, so they're retarded cops?
And I thought LA police were intense. Good god. Someone needs to be fired over this.
Meh, the cops just wanted to get a closer look.
wow, the follow-up arrest is just icing on the embarrassment cake. I guess once they got in, they were like, "quick, we gotta do something or else we look really stupid." Only, being the quick-witted, think-on-your-feet kinda cops that they were, the best they could come up with made them look stupider. Excellent. And by excellent, I mean sad.
If some genius out there invents rubber Lara Croft sex dolls - they'll make a cool hundred million dollars in less than 22.5 hours.
Follow that up with a SAMAS ARAN model and Bill Gates would be trumped as the world's richest man.
I thought things like this only happened in Boston.
let me get this straight. Cops busting in like a bunch of idiots. and the guy actually got arrested?
Well, that's your tax dollars at work for ya.
Cop 1: hmm, we messed it up, and broke his door, what should we do?
Cop 2: Just arrest him and charge him with something.
Cop 1: Okey-dokay
Fascism is fun, isn't it?
No way those in the picture could be considered "impossibly large". My wife's are quite a bit bigger and natural.
Clearly the work of DCI Gene Hunt of Manchester's North West District CID.
They are known for their aggressive policing tactics.
"They airbrushed the nipples off, I love nipples" - Angelina Jolie.
The question here is: Why does someone have a full size Lara Croft mannequin at home?
Why don't YOU?
think lara got frisked?
Ha! They wouldnt stand a chance against Lara...shed' take them all out.
Why did Ray Bradbury take this picture?!
If you follow the read link, it looks like the guy got roughed up pretty bad on his arms. Those look like bad bruises and a big patch of skin got scraped off his elbow area. WTF?
Hurray! Boston is no longer Stupid Cop Capitol of the World!
While it's nice to have a chuckle at this (I did too), I don't believe Engadget and many of you readers understand the nature and dangers of police work. Now I don't know the entire story behind this but in this day and age is it really surprising? Rather it be Lara than a real person about to inflict harm onto someone else. The police obviously acted according to citizen and officer safety. Think about it: there is a realistic gun model in her hand. I won't go into detail but it's also no surprise the owner was arrested, but he'll probably just get a slap on the wrist of some sort. While it's good to poke some fun at this I'm dissapointed that the article and some comments are aligning this story with concepts such as "dumb cops" or "invasion of the home". Engadget, this is FAR from "absurd".
What do you mean "he'll probably get a slap on the wrist"?
The coppers that broke his door down should be the ones that get their wrists slapped. The "dangers" of police work in the UK are significantly lower than the dangers for coppers in the US. What was wrong with simply calling the guys house phone or ringing the doorbell first? The fact that the owner of the mannequin was arrested speaks volumes about where this country is heading. Fascism.
@Fidel (Castro?)
You are an idiot... assuming someone saw lara through an open window and called it in, surely it would be safer for the cops to do a little surveillance first, ie. look in through said window? Oh dear...
Yeah Dak that would be real smart (sarcasm).
They see a silhouette of a person with a gun in hand and the cops are going to stick their head in the window to see whats up. Yeah, that's a real safe thing to do. I suppose cops should now look the other way when they see a figure with a gun in a window.
Everything up to the point of the cops entering and securing the area and apartment was according to procedure. I will agree that for the life of me I can't figure out why he was arrested though.
What's according to procedure about the cops busting in like that without proper reconnaissance? Hmmm, yeah that sure sounds safe for everyone involved . . . Let's see, bust into a place where you obviously haven't done some recon first (I'm assuming they didn't do any satisfactory recon cause they couldn't even properly identify that Lara was just a mannequin). That's a great way to get the hostage and some officers killed if the situation really were real.
What are you talking about proper reconnaissance? It wasn't a bomb threat, it was the silhouette of a person with a weapon in hand. It said nothing about hostage. How many cops do reconnaissance when called to a domestic disturbance? For example, if they get a call of a domestic disturbance where a weapon is involved, they secure the area. They then take positions at all entry/exit points. Then they knock and identify themselves. If there is no response they enter.
You watch too many movies.
"...mistook the ominous silhouette for an actual gunman."
You engadget writers are sexist pigs. GunMAN? Cause women never shoot anyone and don't know what guns are or how to use them - and of course, Lara herself certainly is not a female character. I'm going to pull a reverse feminist here - feminists insist on political correct speak that includes women in everything positive about humanity, I'm going to suggest that we also include women in everything bad about humanity as well. So let's start using 'gunperson' to be inclusive of women in the spirit of feminism.
Any way, the UK is already some nightmare out of the famous novel 1984. They are a fascist state already.
This is a tragic - though has many potentially comic aspects.
Police should require intensive psychological testing as well as IQ testing. There are people who shouldn't have positions of power over the general public and I think these police officers might fall into that category.
Assuming in the UK the police need probable cause to enter, they themselves would have to have actually seen the gunperson in the window - police don't enter your home because some one told them to - they only enter if they have - or think they have evidence. I guess they didn't observe for longer then a split second because they failed to realize the person holding the gun was inhumanly still.
I had a cardboard cutout of Bond (Brosnan) aquired from BlockBusters and had armed Police swarm outside my house.
Thankfully I was out at the time and a neighbour informed the Police that it was a cardboard Bond and posed no threat.
They didn't smash the door down or arrest me. I guess I got lucky, but it happened around 1996 a time of less paranoia.