Police mistake falconer’s receiver for handgun

Kalvin Crossman returned to his home in Evesham, in Worcestershire, after looking for his missing falcon to find six police officers from Warwickshire and West Mercia constabularies waiting for him.

The police had received reports of a man waving a handgun out of a car window but after holding him for several hours and examining his radio tracker, which has a pistol grip and barrel-like antennae, the police were satisfied that there had been a mistake and Mr Crossman was released without charge.



Mr Crossman said: “In the old days when we had a village policeman who knew everyone in the local community this would never have happened. I think that after all the recent reports of gun crime and threats to national security, people are too ready to ring the police as soon as they think they have seen a gun and it’s much easier to do so now everyone has mobile phones. It would have been better if they had given me a chance to explain rather than arrested me straight away. I’ve asked the manufacturers to consider changing the design of the receiver as I don’t want to take one out again.”

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