Armed Police Blunder As 'Rifle' Turns Out To Be A Didgeridoo

Buskers are pretty annoying sometimes. For every super-talented street singer awaiting discovery and subsequent superstardom, there's 15 blokes grunting their way through Oasis songs on the High Street and a dozen wannabe accordion experts.

Still, they're part of the fabric of our cities and probably shouldn't have armed police sent in after them... Which is exactly what the cops in the West Midlands just did to a man with a plastic didgeridoo.

Mark Sleigh, 39, was playing his homemade musical instrument on Monday when the armed response unit descended upon him, blocking him off from leaving the park and insisting that he 'dropped the weapon'.

Of course, some of the more enthusiastic musicians of our time might have referred to their guitars as a weapon - an 'axe', maybe - but very rarely has the word applied to a self-constructed plastic didgeridoo.

The police had been summoned to the park in the Sutton Park area of Sutton Coldfield at around 9pm after reports of a man carrying a rifle.

SWNS

The presumed gunman had left the park by the time they arrived, but was apprehended a short distance away, much to his surprise.

Sleigh later said: "Police in a riot van were waiting, they had blocked off the exit, so I couldn't drive out.

"The officers told me there had been reports of a man with a rifle. I told them it can't be me, all I've got is my didgeridoo."

SWNS

He continued: "They said they had received five calls from people reporting a man carrying a weapon. I explained I had been walking around with my home-made didgeridoo which I made from a plastic PVC pipe.

"Police in a riot van took the keys out of the car and said: 'An armed response unit is on its way to you - a member of the public has reported you for walking around with a rifle!'"

He also joked that the only offense that might have been found from his homemade instrument could have been the 'droning' sound that it created.

SWNS

He added that the coppers themselves did see the funny side - and posed for selfies with him.

Sutton Coldfield cops released a dry statement that simply read: "A man showed police that the item he had been carrying was a 4ft long didgeridoo and that no offences had been committed."

Well, offences against music perhaps, but we can't have armed rozzers turning out for that - James Blunt would never play a gig again.

Topics: Police, UK News, Music, Funny, Fail

Mike Wood

Mike Meehall Wood is a freelance journalist and translator. He writes for LADbible, VICE and countless sports publications, focusing on rugby league, football and boxing. He is a graduate of Leeds University and maintains a fizzy pop obsession. Contact Mike at [email protected]