Police blast over hoax robbery call

Police have hit out after a hoax call about an armed robbery saw the police helicopter, an armed response unit and police dogs diverted for no good reason last night (Wednesday, March 7)

Posting on their Facebook page PSNI Craigavon said: “Armed Response Unit coming at over 100mph to prevent further incidents occurring, Air Support Unit spoken to to retask the chopper from other incidents. Dog Section phoned to pull dogs from across the province to help locate the suspects. Local call signs reassigned from a suspected burglary vehicle on the move to come and deal with it.

“This was the scenario. Sergeants trying to juggle already stretched resources, our force wide assets being moved off other tasks to come and assist. It turned out this was a hoax call. A false report. In other words- a complete waste of our time.

“Worse still, at the same time there was a report of an actual aggravated burglary, where suspects, one armed with a baseball bat, were disturbed by a neighbour. They made off in a vehicle. A crew was looking for that car when they were diverted to the ‘robbery’.”

They added: “Suffice to say, the person who made the call will be answering questions. It’s not just a waste of our time when people do this, but it takes resources away from YOU, the public. It puts people at risk as, obviously, we respond as quickly as we can. If, heaven forbid, our ARV colleagues had been involved in a crash on the way here, that would have been an 100mph+ crash...for NOTHING.

“NEVER waste any emergency service time with false or ridiculous reports. It’s not just annoying, it’s potentially deadly.”