Gloucestershire Constabulary received a panicked call from a member of the public who claimed to have witnessed the “incident” on the A48 in Blakeney, Gloucestershire. Urgent enquiries took place throughout the day and detectives appealed to the public for information.
The passing motorist thought they saw a man and a woman putting a man in a t-shirt into the boot of a dark-coloured five-door hatchback.
Several people came forward following the appeal to say they had also seen the incident.
However, some witnesses said they believed it was a manikin.
The police also received a call from Extreme Simulations, a company which designs and creates realistic training manikins. The firm specialises in training companies for crisis situations using hyper-realistic simulated scenarios.
They told how the “man” was a water rescue manikin which was being loaded into a car on August 10 at around 9.15am.
Officers have since thanked the caller and those who came forward with information following the appeal.
They said the “call was made with good intent”.
Taking to Facebook on August 12, Gloucestershire Constabulary wrote: “We issued an urgent appeal this week after a call that a man was seen being put into the boot of a car on the A48 in Blakeney.
“Thankfully we soon found out that the ‘man’ was in fact a realistic looking water rescue manikin by Extreme Simulations.”
The post was accompanied by a photo of the manikin in a swimming pool.
People flooded to Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Facebook page to share their views.
One person wrote: “Well done to the caller, can’t be too careful, but it is funny”.
Another person commented: “It is realistic! Good Samaritans are still around.”
A third person added: “Well done to the person who reported it, that could have saved someone’s life. And well done to the police who responded so quickly.”
Express Online has contacted Extreme Simulations and Gloucestershire Constabulary for more information.
