Woman claims police told her to remove 'offensive' knitted gorilla from window of home

A grandmother claims she received a visit from police after a woollen ape hanging in her living room window caused offence to a passer-by. Anne Feast, 70, knitted ‘Cilla the Gorilla’ last year and the toy has been hanging in the window at her home in Ely, Cambridgeshire, alongside numerous other characters she has created, ever since. But mother and grandmother-of-two Anne, who has lived in her home with her husband, Philip, 71, for around 14 years, was asked by police to remove the gorilla after it was reported by a passer-by.



The couple don’t know exactly why Cilla caused offence, but they suspect it is either because someone thought it was racist or the way that the ape hangs down. They have refused to remove Cilla – and Philip has even written a notice to the complainant, which they have put up in their window. Anne, who has lived in the Ely area all her life, said: “We’re disgusted by what’s happened to be honest. I didn’t think anyone could be so sad. I saw the pattern for Cilla last year so decided I wanted to knit her. She’s been hanging in the living room window for over a year.



“I change her position every couple of days – sometimes I hang her from her arms, sometimes by her legs and other times I even have her head peeping out the window. The kiddies who pass by the window love it and all the neighbours comment – we’ve only ever received positive comments about Cilla. Then one evening two police officers, a man and a woman, knocked on the door at around 7.30pm. They told me that they needed to speak to me about the ‘black body’ hanging in my window. I said: “Pardon? Do you mean the baby gorilla?”, to which they replied “Ah that’s what it is, is it?”



“They said the gorilla had offended a passer-by and that I needed to take it down.” Anne said: “I told them there was no way I was taking it down and to be honest I basically closed the door in their face. I was so shocked. I wish I’d asked them what the person had found offensive but I was too angry. I presume it was either the way she was hanging or the fact Cilla is black, both of which are quite frankly pathetic. The police haven’t been back since and everyone I’ve told can’t believe it. I can’t believe someone would be so sad as to take offence to a woollen toy, let alone reporting it to police and wasting officers’ time. I’m sure the police have more important things to worry about.” Cambridgeshire Constabulary said it had no record of the officers’ visit.