Crouching Tiger Clears English Course

This happened back in May, but it's one of my favorite stories of the year. Golfers and townsfolk in the Hamphsire town of Hedge End in England got a score when there were reports that an escaped white tiger was on the local golf course.

The golf course and surrounding areas were cleared; the local population was warned to stay inside.

Police arrived in droves, as did workers from the local zoo. The police were armed as if for safari; the zoo workers were carrying transquilizer darts. They set out in golf carts to search for the beast, while helicopters hovered overheard keeping watch for the maneating menace.

This is what they found:



A toy. A stuffed tiger.

The Daily Mail reported:

It was only when thermal-imaging cameras failed to register any heat from the target that officers became suspicious.

And when a blast of air from the helicopter blades flipped the ‘tiger’ on to its back, red-faced officers realised they had been stalking a life-size stuffed animal.