Posted on 05/25/2011 4:14:33 PM PDT by naturalman1975
When schoolboy Tom Clarke accidentally kicked his football through a neighbours greenhouse, he might have expected a scolding.
But 30 minutes later a police patrol car, two officers and the force helicopter armed with thermal imaging cameras were on his trail, in scenes reminiscent of a Hollywood manhunt.
And when officers tracked down the 15-year-old, he was told the mishap had been recorded as criminal damage and could be revealed to future employers carrying out record checks.
His furious father insists the schoolboy has never been in trouble before and branded the police reaction extremely heavy handed.
But police and the owner of the greenhouse have not backed down and Tom fears the incident could derail his hopes of becoming a teacher.
The football fan was having a kickabout with his cousin in a pub garden in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, when the problem started.
He kicked the ball and like countless schoolboys before him watched in horror as it looped over a garden fence and smashed through a pane of glass in the greenhouse.
Unsure what to do next, he went into the pub, unaware of the dramatic chain of events about to unfold.
Greenhouse owner Bobby Cellar, 67, called Thames Valley Police who logged the complaint as criminal damage.
Half an hour later two uniformed officers in a patrol car were leading the search for the culprit, and they asked the force helicopter for help.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Yes, he should have owned up. And he should be punished for not owning up. And he definitely should pay for the accidental damage.
But the fact that he didn’t own up deserves punishment - not a life long label.
They need to ban “footballs”! So much hooliganism is a result of this “sport”. After all, sport is just not enough reason to allow this danger to go unregulated.
Shuttlecock! Now there is good clean fun!
Acually with this owner I do not think it would matter, they would still want it to be a criminal incident.
I think you may be right.
“What would a conservative do”?
Depends... Now or when I was 15? LOL
I was just jealous that he could go into the pub and cool off. That must be the root cause. Subjecting all those babies to the demon rum!
It is sad what all three counties (yours, mine and GB) are coming to.
Well, the police couldn’t take any chances with such a dangerous fugitive on the loose. The boy might have been a member of al’Kidda.
He’s lucky though. He’d probably have been tazed, pepper sprayed and had his head bounced off the patrol car over on this side of the pond.
I once attracted a patrol car, a policewoman, and a helicopter for dropping off a couch on a corner in the wrong section of town. It’s called a slow crime night.
Unsure what to do next? It was an easy decision. You go to the property owner and tell him what happened. Go to the pub? Bad decision. IMO.
Well, if you were crouching on a corner in the wrong
part of town I can understand why.
There were bears in the Wolf river bottoms in the sixties, I remember a reports of sightings.
When I was a kid and we broke windows playing ball or other stuff while playing, we went to the house and told the owner we accidently did it and we were sorry and would fix it. No one ever got all jacked up about a window accidently broken. That’s nuts.
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