Police 'kidnap' swoop was Bucks Party prank
Police officers launched a major operation to rescue a kidnapping victim – only to discover he was the groom on a Bucks night.
A mother and her 14-year-old daughter notified the police after seeing a man tied up and 'roughly' carried into a car by four men with tights over their faces at 11.20am in Gloucester, the UK, reports the Daily Mail.
The two cars then sped off down the freeway and were tracked by police, who pounced to stop the car around 90 minutes later.
The groom and friends admitted the ‘kidnap’ was a prank, but furious police forced the men to apologise to the mother and daughter, who were left shaken up by the incident.
Inspector Arman Mathieson, of Gloucestershire Constabulary, told The Daily Mail: “We received a 999 call at 11.20am from a distressed woman who, along with her 14 year old daughter, had seen four men with tights covering their faces carrying a tied up man and bundling him roughly into a car.
“We immediately sent officers to the scene and treated it as a genuine abduction, following up all the appropriate procedures for an incident of that sort.
“The vehicle was linked to Chippenham in Wiltshire, and was believed to be heading for the M5, so we liaised with our partner forces.
“At around 1.30pm the vehicle was stopped by Avon and Somerset police at junction 24 of the M5, when it was established it was a ‘prank’ as part of a stag party.
“We are dedicated to keeping people safe from harm and had to treat this seriously, given the description we were given of what happened and the distress it had caused to witnesses.
“While we could arrest the people involved in the stag party for various offences, we feel the best course of action might be for them to apologise to the mother and daughter who witnessed this and who were very shaken up by what happened.”
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police added: “Officers stopped two vehicles at junction 24 of the M5.
“The occupants of the vehicles were given words of advice and this turned out to be a false alarm with good intent.
“Officers had been responding to a call from a member of the public who was reporting an attempted abduction.
“While this may have been considered a harmless prank a significant police response was unnecessarily diverted through heavy traffic and adverse weather to attend this incident.
“This could have jeopardised the safety of members of the public, the officers involved or our response to a genuine emergency.”
