Man behind stuffed tiger police raid comes forward
When Kevin Blunden picked up a cuddly toy from a rubbish heap as a toy for his dog, you could never have foreseen the trouble that he would cause.
Only a matter of hours later, armed Police and a helicopter were dispatched to a field, believing that there was a tiger on the loose in Hampshire.
A cricket game was abandoned, a golf course was evacuated and a part of the M27 was closed in case the animal walked onto the motorway.
Now, Mr. Blunden has admitted that it was in fact him who had caused the huge Police operation to happen. And all that he had done was pick up the toy for his five-year-old border collie-cross Saski to play with.
He said: “I was walking past some derelict garages where people dump rubbish and saw that in there, with some loft insulation, was this tiger. I thought it would be fun to play with my dog with it, so I drove down to the field in Hedge End.
“I was chucking it around and she was sniffing it and running away again. I was out there for some time, but got bored after a while and just left it there. I didn’t think any more about it.”
Many people are seeing the father of three as a ‘legend’ and there has been a Facebook group set up for “The Legend who put a Stuffed Toy Tiger in Hedge End”, which now has more than 9,000 members.
Mr. Blunden says that he is embarrassed by the incident, which has been reported about across the world and even featured on Have I Got News For You.
But he believes that the Police overreacted: “When I saw it on the rubbish pile, I didn’t think ‘oh my God, that’s a real Siberian tiger’. They could have just thrown a stone or a stick at it to see if it moved – you could see it wasn’t real. When I heard what had happened I was terrified that I was going to get in trouble for it. I went round to some friends for a barbecue this weekend and all of them were saying, ‘you’re a legend’ as though I was some kind of hero.
“I find it quite embarrassing actually.” Police have not confirmed whether further action would be taken against Mr. Blunden.
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