Police confiscate walking stick from retired teacher, 78, because it is an 'offensive weapon'

They must have known he was a troublemaker the moment they saw him.

With his white hair, wax jacket and glasses, 78-year-old Philip Clarkson Webb clearly ticked all the boxes any eagle-eyed policemen would mark as 'danger'.

And as he shuffled along the pavement towards them there was one thing above all they deemed to pose a threat - his walking stick.



The officers surrounded the retired classics teacher and informed him the 3ft wooden cane was an 'offensive weapon' and had to be confiscated.

Mr Clarkson Webb duly handed it over, but the farce did not end there. When he later went to collect it from his local police station in Southborough, Kent, with his police receipt, he was told it had been misplaced.

It took a string of phone calls for Kent Police to finally admit they had lost it and to offer to buy him a brand new one.