UK Police Roll Out Copters to Hunt ... Stuffed Tiger

Police scrambled helicopters and ordered tranquilizers to hunt what they feared was an escaped wild animal in southern England—but what turned out to be a stuffed toy. Hampshire Police responded after several residents called in to say they'd seen a white tiger sitting in a field near Southampton. A tongue-in-cheek recorded statement posted to the force's media line said that after "a brief stalk through the Hedge End savannah ... it became obvious that the tiger was a stuffed, life-sized toy."

A second message posted yesterday emphasized police had a duty to take such sightings seriously. As for the renegade tiger, "it's being treated as lost property."