After driving a wounded swan to the vet in the back of their squad car, Devon police officers found themselves experiencing the plot of the comedy Hot Fuzz.
The bird was in trouble last night in Plymouth Harbour and was saved by a “drunk man,” but while waddling along a busy road, it was struck by a car.
Naturally, Edgar Wright’s 2007 comedy Hot Fuzz was immediately compared to the incident. In the movie, inept village police officers are accused of detaining a swan.
When police arrived, they discovered the whining swan and a large group of worried bystanders who had reportedly wrapped the distressed animal up.
After placing it in the back seat of their car, the officers drove the animal to the vet – where it is now on the mend.
Sharing the news of their escapade on Twitter, a Plymouth police account said: ‘Not your usual prisoner!
‘Report of a swan being removed from the harbour by a drunk male before it being involved in a collision on Mutley Plain.
‘Taken to the vets where they are nursing it back to health.’
In the hit British comedy Hot Fuzz, ex-Met cop PC Nicholas Angel, played by Simon Pegg, and his bumbling partner PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) chase an antisocial swan through the fictional village of Sandford.
But they fail to catch the irate bird – resulting in one busybody local saying to the press: “No luck catching them swans then?”
Relying to the tweet, a parody account for the film’s fictional Sandford police force said: ‘Well done team.
‘You may well have prevented anyone coming to serious harm by detaining that rogue swan.’
In reference to the film’s complainant, one said: ‘Was the call made by a Peter Ian Staker?’
Another asked: ‘Just the one swan?’
One laughed: ‘Further confirmation were it needed that Hot Fuzz is actually a documentary.’
A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘Police were called at 6.20pm yesterday to Mutley Plain following reports that a swan had been removed from the harbour by a man, who had left the area prior to police arrival.
‘It was reported that the swan had possibly been hit by a vehicle. Members of the public had wrapped a blanket around it and called the vets. It was taken to the vets by officers and left in their care.’
It’s not the first time a swan’s caused trouble for Devon cops, in 2020 police were forced to close part of the M5 motorway near Exeter after a swan waddled onto the carriageway
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