White Tiger on the Loose a Local Offbeat News Story

Reports that a white tiger has been spotted on the outskirts of the city you live in are not what you want to hear on the news. This is what happened in our city this weekend, but as so often happens, things are not always what they seem in this offbeat news story.

Let me paint the scene for you. We had been to the Best Buy store in Hedge End on the outskirts of Southampton and were returning home, when we noticed three police cars at the side of the road, with six police officers, several wearing US style baseball caps, which are used only by special units in the UK, and they were looking through a gate across the fields at something.

Wondering what they might have been looking at, about a mile down the road we came across an old banger, a red hatchback with the rear window missing, also parked at the side of the road by a gate leading to a field, and two youths who can only be described as "gangster like" standing by it.

We were left pondering as to what was happening, until Debbie powered on her laptop this morning and took a look at the BBC News web site as she usually does, and the following story was on the front page.

Hampshire 'WhiteTiger Sighting' Causes Major Alert

Apparently someone had reported seeing a white tiger in a field near Hedge End on Saturday afternoon, and this prompted special police units to be called in to investigate, including a helicopter and thermal imaging cameras.

Even experts from Marwell Zoo which is nearby were called for advice, and a team with tranquilizer darts were placed on standby.

As a result plans were made to close the nearby M27 motorway, and a cricket game at The Rose Bowl, home of Hampshire Cricket was suspended for 20 minutes. A local golf course was also cleared of players, just in case. You don't exactly want to be confronted by a tiger on the fairway do you.

The white tiger was being observed in the field by the police, and it did not appear to be moving. The thermal imaging cameras also did not show any heat coming from the tiger.

It was only when the police helicopter came in to take a closer look, that the downdraft caused the tiger to roll over, and this is when the observers realized that the white tiger was in fact a life sized stuffed toy.

So panic over, and the end of the story from the BBC News, but we are left wondering why a life sized stuffed white tiger was left in the middle of a field, and was this a prank that was intended to cause a major incident alert.

Having also seen the old red car and the two suspicious characters only a mile away, we are also wondering if they had anything to do with this at all.

I guess we will never find out, but it's not that often that an offbeat news story of this kind happens in your local area, and even more unusual too for it to become one of the most popular stories of the day.