Police called in over joke about squirrels

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First there was the boy of 11 quizzed over an e-mail calling his schoolfriend gay.

Then came the five-year-old told off for playing hopscotch after chalking on the street.

Now, just when you thought police over-reaction had reached its height, we present the couple investigated for joking about squirrels.

Grey squirrels have driven out the red in most parts of Britain

Colin and Jenny Harrow were visited under suspicion of cruelty to animals after sending a spoof letter to their local paper.

The Cumberland News had published an article claiming that incomers from the South were releasing grey squirrels in the area - which prides itself on being one of the last bastions of the red squirrel population.

The Harrows, who used to live in Devon, sensed an anti-southern bias in the story and decided on a light-hearted response.

Colin Harrow wrote a joke letter in response to a anti-south news article

Mrs Harrow, 59, wrote: "We would like to inform any interested parties that we (formerly southerners) have just returned to our cottage with a crate full of wild grey squirrels from Epping Forest which we would be happy to supply to any other "outcomers", homesick for the South and in need of the odd grey squirrel to make them feel at home."

Shortly afterwards, there was a knock at the door of the couple's home in the Lake District village of Thackthwaite, near Penrith.

Two officers from Cumbria Police informed them they were investigating claims of squirrel abuse. They had come to check whether hapless rodents were being kept in crates after several complaints from members of the public.

The couple were able to put the officers' minds at rest and were eventually told no action would be taken.

Mr Harrow, 64, said: "It would be laughable if it were not so sad. How do these people think we got hold of the grey squirrels in the first place - run around with a pocketful of peanuts and a lasso?

"It appears that some people had taken my wife's letter seriously and actually reported her to the police. We felt so sorry for the police who had to waste valuable time investigating this nonexistent 'crime'."

Mr Harrow, a former newspaper managing editor, added: "The main point of the letter was not really about squirrels but about the attitude of a small minority of people who seem to want to treat incomers from the South as some sort of aliens.

"It's no worse in Cumbria or the North of England generally than it is in the South where they talk about "northerners" in the same derogatory way.

"But just because a few people seem to think anyone born outside their county, town or even village is a foreigner threatening their way of life doesn't make this attitude any more acceptable."

The couple moved to the Lake District in 2004 after Mr Harrow retired to pursue his love of painting. He has since had a number of his artworks exhibited in local galleries.

During his newspaper career, he worked at the Mirror Group training centre in Plymouth, where his students included Alistair Campbell, who would later become Tony Blair's spin doctor.

 

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