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In another case of police resources being put to good use, five coppers — two armed with sub-machine guns — battering on the door of poor Ian Driscoll, thinking that his fancy new profile pic featuring an Action Man and toy mortar, was real.
Someone tipped the Tewkesbury police off, after spotting the image on Dricsoll’s Facebook. Unfortunately, even though there was a TV remote and piece of skirting board in there for scale, no body spotting it was JUST A TOY. Come on people, let’s be a bit smarter about this, eh?
A police spokesperson said: “The information was given in good faith. We would much rather have a result like this than to put the public in harm’s way by not taking action.” Fair enough, I’d agree for the most part, but perhaps use a little smarts in scrutinising the evidence before going out for a raid next time. [The Sun]
I was chocked to find out Tewkesbury is in England. I was already preparing some joke about ‘Merica. I’m starting to regret moving to UK
I actually support this forcible entry and thorough response. Don’t get me wrong but just think if it was a real threat instead, snooping around takes time.
In all honesty if I came home and found my front door smashed in and a load of police in there looking for something like this I’d say “Nice job, boys” and offer everyone some tea.
I’d much rather this kind of reaction than them um-ing and ah-ing over it for a while leaving some maniac with a bloody mortar! Like you say, snooping takes time, and we’ve already seen that criminals have access to military weapons (that Dale Creegan bellend).
“Snopping around takes time”
How immediate of a threat is a mortar? Also, according to the article, it took two months for somebody to report the photo.
Of course, the source is The Sun, so you never know what really went on.
Assuming it’s a 55 it has anti personnel capability out to about 500 meters, with the only noise of it’s firing being a WHUMP that is similar to any other urban noise. Basically a civilian in the area would hear some nutjob banging a drum in his back garden and then cars and people would start having the ability to fit inside a bucket, as well as people’s loft’s suddenly gaining rather large windows.
As for the actual immediacy it would depend on how illegal you’re willing to go. I could pick up a 88mm mortar without much fuss or risk, but getting working rounds would be a whole other problem that would require black market connections to acquire.
(Disclaimer: I do not own a mortar. I do not wish to own a mortar. Please don’t raid my house!)
Is it the same height as an action man though? Check the link at the bottom of the article for the pic, its ridiculous!
1) No idea of scale. It’s a simple practice to outfit a lil 2 inch mortar with sights and a stand, and the coppers would only be able to see the thumbnail, not the full image since they’re governed by the same privacy restrictions that we are. It would also be a relatively simple project to get one of these model mortars, outfit it with a chopped down .22 barrel and then put some rounds in the air for them to arrive and cause havoc a day later.
Lot of mass murderers (Batman shooting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting) buy weapons long before the actual incident.
By no means I am an artillery expert, don’t really know how much it takes to deploy a mortal live but with the help of internet revolution I think self assemble is possibly
He deserves an armed raid for playing with Action Man.
TANK?
Marathon (Snickers) anyone?
At least he’s not a brony.
Not sure I should be saying that with a Hello Kitty avatar…
what is up with that avatar?
It’s a secret
fair enough