How a soft toy sparked an armed police stand-off on a UK farm

A stuffed toy tiger has caused panic on a British cattle farm after an unwitting farmer spotted the giant cat lurking among his livestock.

Bruce Grubb, 24, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, couldn't believe his eyes on Saturday when he went to check on his pregnant cows and saw the predator sat in the middle of the cow shed.

"I flashed my torch in the shed and saw it sitting there," he told The Scottish Sun.

"I got a hell of a scare. I was worried it was going to eat all my cows."

He immediately called the police who rushed to the scene with several police vehicles and an armed unit.

But Mr Grubb soon realised the frightening intruder posed little threat to his livestock after driving his truck closer and spotting that it was in fact a soft toy.

“I feel a bit silly for calling the police but I thought it was a real emergency," he said.

Mr Grubb was enjoying a housewarming party with friends when he made the discovery. He says he hadn't been drinking as his 200 cows were due to give birth at any moment.

He says the first police officer on the scene refused to get out of his vehicle in fear of the supposed predator. Officers had even called a local wildlife park to see if any tigers were missing.

"We received a call from an extremely concerned member of the public late on Saturday evening," Inspector George Cordiner told The Telegraph.

"Unusual as the call may have seemed, any call reporting a potential danger to the public has to be taken seriously and efforts were made to verify the sighting as soon as possible."

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After the armed unit approached the tiger, they were quickly able to establish there was no threat to the public and called an end to the 45-minute ordeal.

Mr Grubb still has no idea where the tiger came from and believes it could be a practical joke by pranksters.

Officers have since kept the tiger as a memento from the unusual callout.