Children Form Human Arrow To Point Police Helicopter Toward Burglars [Video]

Finding a runaway burglar with a police helicopter can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Fortunately for officers in Surrey, England, a group of helpful children decided to stop in the middle of an Easter egg hunt to guide the search in the right direction. The kids lay down in the middle of an open field to form a human arrow, which pointed the police helicopter toward the spot where the burglars were hiding.

According to the Huffington Post, the National Police Air Service was flying above Surrey on Good Friday, trying to track down two burglary suspects who had reportedly robbed a nearby building. The helicopter was flying above an area where a gathering of children were looking for Easter eggs. Having witnessed the two burglars running past the area, the kids decided to put a hold on their own search to help out the police with theirs. They assumed the helicopter circling overhead was looking for the criminals, so they worked together to form a human arrow to be seen overhead.

Footage filmed from the police helicopter shows a group of eight kids making the human arrow on the ground, many of them looking up at the helicopter expectantly. In the video at the top of the page, you can see the camera pan over in the direction the human arrow was pointing. After switching to thermal imagining, the camera operator was able to spot a warm human figure hiding in a wooded area.

The Surrey police released a statement on their website, revealing that the police helicopter was able to relay the message from the childrens’ human arrow to officers on the ground. Thanks to the fast-thinking children, both of the suspects were arrested.

“Initially, the presence of the police helicopter was enough to entertain the children and parents but it didn’t take the intrepid residents long to realise they were witnessing a police pursuit set within their quiet rural community. The children quickly formed an arrow on the ground in the middle of a ploughed field to guide the helicopter in the direction of the fleeing pair. The helicopter crew relayed this information to officers on the ground and a short time later two men were arrested.”

The children involved in the human arrow were reportedly as young as 6- to 12-years-old, but at least one of those kids had wits sharp beyond their age.

“I’m sure the last thing the group of daring Capel residents expected when they set out on Friday afternoon was to abandon their Easter egg hunt to assist us in a police search but the initiative they demonstrated proved to be invaluable,” said NPAS Sergeant Paul Sochon.

Human arrow footage (via GIPHY)

The crew from the National Police Air Service made an effort to land the helicopter and personally thank the children. Though the story may seem like something out of a work of children’s fiction, the human arrow really did help Surrey police to make the arrest.

“The swift action taken by the group of parents and their children was the sort of thing you would usually associate with an Enid Blyton adventure but their ingenuity proved a great help for our crews,” Sochon added. “As a thank you for their efforts the NPAS crew landed nearby to thank the children for the role they played in the incident and they even shared a few chocolate treats with the team which was an added bonus after a busy shift.”

A 27- and 28-year-old man were both arrested and charged with burglary. The men have been released on bail while police investigate the incident and find witnesses to the crime.

Do you think you would have come up with the idea for a human arrow as a child?

[Human arrow photo via NPAS]