WHEN residents in a rural community on the moors above Penistone saw what they believed was a neighbour making rude gestures towards them they notified the police.
But when officers went to investigate they discovered, in fact, he had an injured finger.
Officers went to the remote village of Crow Edge after complaints from some residents that the man, in his 60s, was using obscene body language to insult them.
They complained he had been "giving them the finger" and said they wanted police to investigate.
But when Pc Andy Thompson went to the man's home he discovered the man had injured the middle finger on one of his hands.
The bandage that had been put on the deep cut resulted in it having to be kept straight.
Pc Thompson said: "Apparently he had been sitting outside in the sunny weather and because his middle finger was sticking up some neighbours thought he was making a rude sign at them.
"But once I had visited the man and he had shown me his injury I was satisfied that despite how it appeared to his neighbours, he was not intentionally being rude.
"It is one of the strangest incidents I have been out to but at least I was able to check out the facts and reassure the neighbours that they were not being insulted as they had thought."
