Warning after ‘special kind of idiot’ rang police over man with gun near Sheffield supermarket

Yesterday (February 24) police received a call from a man who claimed to have seen a person with a handgun near to parks and supermarkets in Sheffield.

Firearms officers responded to the call and approached a person matching the description of the person alleged to have a handgun.

It turned out to be the person who had made the hoax call.

He had described his own clothing and appearance when identifying the ‘man with the handgun’ to police officers, and was still carrying the phone he had used to make the call when he was caught.

A spokesperson for SYP’s Operation Support Team said: “When a member of the public calls police reporting a person in possession of a handgun SYP obviously deal with it extremely seriously.

“It requires firearms officers to respond on the assumption lives may be in danger, and travel sometimes considerable distances at speed on ‘blues and twos’.

“Officers were approaching this person, having no idea whether he is armed with a real handgun or what his intentions are.

“Luckily this particular person was only armed with a rather overactive imagination and a distinct lack of IQ points.

“This particular special kind of idiot had a not-too-friendly greeting by officers and, when the truth was uncovered, a not-too-friendly talking to.”

The hoax caller was issued a fixed penalty ticket for wasting police time.