Once a pun a time

'Please call again' – the sign you WILL notice as you leave a store after a particularly horrendous shopping experience.

It seems that everyone is having a go at our constabulary at the moment for their crime-prevention performance, not helped by having their last two commissioners dismissed / fired/ charged with precisely with what the people in blue are doing their best to fight. And there are many dedicated and brave coppers out there, as the following tale will show.

I was witness to the chase of a criminal through a building site who, as he was being cornered, threw the evidence into a bucket which was being hoisted up by a large gantry. With all the shouting from the ground below to stop the bucket, the operator rather ‘lost it’, and managed to jam the bucket into the winding gear of the gantry arm. Eventually, a brave constable ventured out on his hands and knees and retrieved the incriminating package.

Watching from the ground, I was approached by a shopkeeper and asked what was going on. My reply, I think, was succinct – “Police crawl a crane”.