Posted on 01/07/2006 1:19:19 PM PST by Stoat
Army conned by blonde | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
A 17-YEAR-OLD girl conned her way on to four Army bases and ordered troops about in an astonishing security lapse. The blonde Forces fantasist hoodwinked hardened soldiers over ten days which saw her: WAKE a platoon of 30 rookie Paras at 3am and put them through drill exercises; WANDER close to lethal and sensitive equipment such as £30million Apache helicopter gunships and Challenger battle tanks; COMMANDEER military vehicles and drivers to ferry her around; BLAG a room to stay overnight at one base. The extraordinary series of pranks exposed gaping flaws in military security and left top brass furious in the very week that Prince William joins the Army.
The girl began her brazen charade last November at Helles Barracks the Parachute Regiments depot at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorks. She had recently been turned down for entrance to the Army but, claiming to be a soldier, she pulled an instructor in town and persuaded him to take her back. After spending the night with the NCO, she asked to borrow his uniform by claiming she needed it for a Remembrance Day parade and had forgotten her own. But instead, she went to the new recruits accommodation at 3am and woke a whole platoon by barking a series of stern orders. She claimed to be a Royal Artillery lance bombardier but had no ID card and regularly gave out the same fake service number. The next day she blagged entry into nearby Alanbrooke Barracks in Topcliffe and spent the day relaxing in the officers mess.
She then commandeered a driver to take her to Cambrai Barracks in Catterick home to the Queens Royal Lancers. She told the guard commander she was just passing through and asked to be put up for the night, before wandering around the base unescorted. The girl was finally rumbled by a suspicious sentry. Special Branch detectives were called in to investigate the school leaver as a terrorism threat. They deemed her harmless and released her without charge. But seven days later, she grabbed a train to Hampshire where she called a driver to pick her up at the station and take her to the Army Air Corps HQ in Middle Wallop. There she wandered around the home of the latest £30million Apache helicopter gunships the Armys costliest piece of kit.
But she was caught again and top brass insisted on a prosecution. She appeared before Basingstoke Youth Court where she got an 18-month supervision order. An MoD source told The Sun: What this young lady managed to do was quite extraordinary. For a teenager to penetrate military security as deeply as she did on four occasions is appalling. What on earth could an al-Qaeda terrorist have achieved? One shudders to think. She made a mockery of some of Britains finest fighting outfits. Top brass are fuming. Heads will have to roll. |
Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK
blag | Verb. To lie, or use clever talk with profit as an objective, to wheedle or persuade for gain. E.g."I blagged a lift to work with my sister but had to get the bus home." Noun. 1. A con, a 'scam'. 2. A violent robbery or raid. |
rumble | Verb. To discover, to find out. E.g."She rumbled me when she overheard my conversation on the phone." |
kit | Noun. Clothes. See 'get one's kit off'. |
(Variation of Kit definition in this context: "equipment")
A 17-year-old ball-buster. I like.
She must have some, er, interesting talents to get away with what she did.
So this blonde walks onto an army base...
I suspect she frequently rumbled without her kit.
Yeah, I'll bet they were if she was cute. :-)
"She must have some, er, interesting talents to get away with what she did."
I have the sneaking suspicion she was pretty.
A big set'a cans helps too.
LOL.
The use of the word blond in the title is interesting. Taken on its own, it could literally refer to an elderly blond man, but the headline writer seems to suppose it conveys the idea of a young female.
In any case, it makes her seem like a pretty cunning girl -- not the stereotypical "dumb blond."
But my point -- which I get to slowly -- is, this thread is useless without pictures!
I suspect there'll be a few squaddies catching hell over this...
Blonde with an -e denotes a female.
They should consider recruiting her for covert operations.
Somehow I doubt that a middle eastern male could pull this off. Blonds can be very persuasive. Assuming she doesn't have mental issues, I think the Army should rethink its decision.
I wonder: does "blag" rhyme with blog or flag? I'd like to use that word.
Free Republic... it's not just a web site, it's an education!! :-)
I'm assuming 'flag' but unfortunately the British slang dictionaries that I'm seeing so far don't offer much in the way of pronunciation help. There's also a chance that these slang terms, like many other words, vary in how they're pronounced based upon subtle regional variations, just as many words have regional pronunciation differences here in the USA.
I think that in this case it might be best to seek the help of one of our many British FReeper friends, unless a better online British slang dictionary can be found than the ones I'm seeing so far..
If this one involves a duck or a Rabbi, I've heard it.
Picture?
PICS. NOW.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.