ARV units in Essex were sent to a ‘gunpoint car jacking’ only to find out that the critical incident was instead an unscheduled exercise that was being carried out by a private security company.
The incident occured on Tuesday 15th January in Waltham Abbey after several people called 999 after seeing what they believed was a real-life car jacking.
The National Police Air Service was also sent to the area in order to provide realtime intelligence and force support.
Once the armed crews had contained the area and surrounded the ‘suspects’ it was then established that they were in fact part of a private security company and were staging a fake kidnapping as part of an unscheduled training scenario.
Clearly, however, the training company had forgotten to inform Essex Police of their intentions.
Vehicles which had matched the description of those given by members of the public were stopped at gunpoint before police had managed to establish that the incident was a ‘training exercise’.
In a statement, Essex Police said:
“All available units deployed to the area on emergency response with our #Npas friends lifting off as well.
“Numerous firearms teams and units converged on the area and it was quickly sealed off.
“All vehicles or persons matching the descriptions were stopped and searched by officers.
“Eventually the suspects were identified and surrounded by armed officers.
“This could have gone horribly wrong as the suspects identified themselves as a (security company) staging a fake kidnapping as a training scenario!!!
“Brilliant.”
Essex Police added:
“To the security company, and you know who you are! Perhaps notify #Essexpolice next time or better still, train somewhere else.”
We thought that we would use a ‘fake’ picture of an Essex Police ARV in the featured image taken from GTA 5 – just to keep with the spirit of things….
If you have a story, video or one-off blog that you would like to share with us, then you can contact our team of former emergency services & armed forces personnel either through our Facebook page, via Twitter ( @ES_News_ ) or you can contact us via email: contact@emergency-services.news
If you run or manage a ‘job’ social media account and you would like us to share one of your stories then send us a tweet or a message!
If you would like to write an article that you would like us to share (it can be about anything to do with the emergency services / NHS) whether you serve in the emergency services / NHS or whether you are a member of the public that has had a good experience with the emergency services, then feel free to contact our team; anonymously if you prefer.
We are proud to act as a voice for the Emergency Services & Health Service, with over 500,000 people visiting our website each month.
Before you go...
WE NEED YOUR HELP.Here at Emergency Services News, we aim to tell you stories that the mainstream media are not interested in reporting. Whilst the MSM love to berate and ridicule the emergency services, who is there to report on the realities of serving on the front line?
Emergency Services News is currently a loss-making entity. But our team of volunteers, all former emergency services personnel, do not do it for the money.
We do it because we are sick and tired of the mainstream media constantly trying to undermine the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep you and your family safe.
How many MSM journalists who speak ill of the emergency services have actually dared to don the uniform and risk their own lives to save the life of a complete stranger? If you would like to help back our mission of reporting on fact-based news, then please consider helping to support us financially.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
