Copper chases himself for 20 minutes

A plain clothes police officer chased himself for 20min after he was mistaken on CCTV for a burglary suspect.


The PC was working after hours in a market town that had suffered a spate of break-ins when a CCTV operator reported a man ‘acting suspiciously’ in a side road.

Unaware he had been mistaken as the suspect, the probationary Sussex police officer began to chase the elusive figure.

As the CCTV operator, oblivious to his mistake, tracked the suspect’s position, the plain clothes officer seemed to find himself in the same street.

But despite being told he was ‘on the heels’ of his prey by the operator, the energetic officer was always one step behind the shadowy suspect.

About 20min into the pursuit, a sergeant came into the control room and, in fits of laughter, realised the suspect and the officer were the same person.

The bungle last month was revealed by a senior colleague in the latest copy of the Police Federation magazine Police. ‘The probationary officer was very keen to do any plain-clothed operations and be as proactive as possible,’ he told the magazine.

‘He would be waiting at the end of his shift hoping to be unleashed for a further couple of hours of plain-clothes duties.’

The senior officer added: ‘Every time the man darted into another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway

‘But, every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see, there was no trace.

‘With the sergeant’s sides aching from laughter, he pointed out to the PC that the operator had been watching him unaware that he was a pain-clothes officer – thus the PC had been chasing himself.’

Sussex police said it was aware of the incident after reading the magazine and a spokesman admitted the force ‘had a laugh’ when they read the article.

But they could give no further details of the chase.