Armed police cordoned off pub after mistaking man's walking stick for a gun

Armed police surrounded a pub in the Wirral, Merseyside, after reports a man had a gun, but it turned out to be a folded up walking stick. Officers were called to the Cock and Donkey in Rock Ferry on Tuesday afternoon after the alarm was raised by a member of the public at about 2.50pm. They told police that a man carrying a firearm had entered the pub.



Merseyside Police said officers were deployed as a precautionary measure and the area around the pub was sealed off. But a short time later the man was found to be carrying a walking stick. The road outside was closed for around 40 minutes while police were at the pub. The pensioner at the centre of the firearms scare, 66-year-old Lenny Wood, said: “It was scary when it happened but now I’m all embarrassed. I was talking to some old fella in the pub the other day and said I had a little walking stick he could have.

“I brought it up with me on Tuesday but he wasn’t there. The next minute I realised I was left on my own in the bar. I thought: ‘have I got B.O or something?’ I decided to go home, I walked outside and I saw all these police, some with guns. There must have been four or five police cars there. I nearly dirtied myself.” Lenny added: “The police were good with me. They just said ‘walk towards me sir’. I couldn’t hear them properly because I didn’t have my hearing aid in.



“I said ‘It’s a walking stick, if I walk up to the police car and put it on the bonnet and step back, would that be alright?’ I had to wait for the inspector to come up and then they let me go and that was it.” A police spokesman said: “We would always encourage members of the public to report suspicious activity to us. In this case a report was made in good faith and the appropriate procedures were followed.”