Texas Roof Tiger

Add this to the 'Things on Roofs' file: Police in Houston, Texas received reports of a tiger sitting on the roof of an abandoned hotel. The animal was causing a bit of a traffic jam as drivers stopped to look at it. But upon investigation, it turned out to be a toy tiger. I'm assuming it was the work of a prankster, who's now out a pretty nice stuffed animal. Link: BBC News.

Animals Pranks

Posted on Thu Jan 19, 2012


Comments

Oh, yeah, I've seen those tigers. They are NOT cheap. Beautiful things, though. My guess is someone swiped it from a friend or something, as there's no way anyone who bought one would use it for a prank.
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Fri Jan 20, 2012  at  12:36 AM
Ditto Robin as soon as I saw the pic. I love them! And no, I wouldn't let this beauty out of my sight either to be setting outside in the weather!!!
Posted by hulitoons  on  Fri Jan 20, 2012  at  08:21 AM
Expensive as these toy animals are, their use for the purposes of hoaxing seems relatively common.

Here's a 'white tiger' from a recent news story in Hampshire, UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8529009/Toy-tiger-sparks-armed-police-alert-in-Southampton.html

And a 'black panther' is mentioned a little way down this page from the British Big Cats Society.

http://www.britishbigcats.org/news.php
Posted by Paul Taylor  on  Fri Jan 20, 2012  at  09:24 AM
I bought one of those for my daughter a few years back and now she's lost interest in it. Maybe I can find a better place for it than the attic.
Posted by MG  on  Fri Jan 20, 2012  at  10:01 AM
Send it to me. I'll leave it out in the Cambridgeshire fens somewhere.
Posted by Paul Taylor  on  Fri Jan 20, 2012  at  11:26 AM
We had a similar case (perhaps copy-cat) in the Netherlands today:

http://www.omroepbrabant.nl/?news/168400532/Tijger+langs+de+weg+in+Westerhoven,+politie+rukt+uit.aspx

life-like stuffed tiger in brushwood near a ditch was seen by a woman on a bicycle, and reported to the Police
Posted by LaMa  on  Mon Jan 23, 2012  at  07:41 AM
My little sister used to have a big toy tiger like that when she was a little kid, she loved that thing. I'd hate to foot the bill for all the police resources wasted on that Hampshire incident, which I'd imagine they could fine the hoaxer if they caught him/her/them. Police choppers and in particular Armed Response Units are the sort of things they only bring out for fairly special circumstances in the UK.

Of course that's before you get to the fact that significant and scarce resources were sent out on what turns out to have been a hoax, which would've hindered the police's ability to have dealt as effectively with any serious incidents that were occurring in the area around that time. Which seems a 'po-faced' way to look at it at the moment but imagine the justifiable pulbic outcry had a truly dangerous criminal got away because armed and helicopter-mounted police were being distracted by stuffed tigers instead of giving their attention to the crime being comitted.
Posted by Craig McArthur  on  Thu Mar 22, 2012  at  04:35 PM
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