By Martin Fricker
Daily Mirror
LEICESTER, United Kingdom — Police probing reports of a corpse in a wheelchair were left feeling right dummies.
Officers alerted over the “dead body” by a horrified resident rushed to a university only to discover it was a medical mannequin.
It was wrapped in black plastic and had been wheeled about half a mile from a hospital.
Police called in at landlord Tony Cope’s pub to see if his security cameras had filmed the dummy as it was taken from Leicester Royal Infirmary to De Montfort University. He said: “When I asked them what they were looking for they showed me this picture of a dead body taken by the camera across the road. It put me on a bit of a downer, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting to see a dead body. It was gruesome.
“They didn’t say anything about it being a mannequin. To be fair to whoever called police, it looked exactly like a body wrapped in black bags slumped in a wheelchair. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked real, I’m relieved it was not.”
Leicester Royal Infirmary admitted the dummy belonged to them — and apologised for causing any distress.
A spokeswoman said: “They were doing some training for medical students at De Montfort University.
“It was such a nice day they decided to walk rather than drive.
“In hindsight they realised it wasn’t the best thing to do.
“It is a very realistic looking mannequin and it is used to train our future doctors and nurses.”
Copyright 2012 MGN Ltd.