INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Human Arrow Helps Cops Track Down Burglars During Easter Egg Hunt

By Inquisitr Staff
Published on: 02:59 PST, Apr 4, 2016

A human arrow helped cops track down burglars on Good Friday during an Easter egg hunt. The human arrow was formed by a group of children who had gathered just outside of London to hunt for Easter eggs. Lying end to end on the ground, the children quickly turned themselves into a human arrow to help point a police helicopter towards two burglary suspects who had just run through a field where they were searching for eggs.

Quick thinking on the part of the children led police to capture the two suspected robbers. CNN reports that two men in their late 20s were arrested thanks to the children and their human arrow. The crew inside the helicopter let officers on the ground know which way the arrow was pointing, leading them to arrest the two men a short while later.

According to a tweet by Surrey Police on April 1, “Capel kids help ‘copter to capture crooks!”

A video from March 25, showing the two men running through a plowed field and the children forming the human arrow, has since gone viral online. The video appears to be police footage that had been shot from the overhead view of the police helicopter looking down onto the field. Two suspects are shown fleeing from police in opposite directions through an open field, followed by eight children dropping to the ground to arrange themselves in the shape of a human arrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDjvprkpq5A

Redhill, Surrey, police captured the short video clip that is somewhat fuzzy but still clearly shows the human arrow pointing the chopper in the right direction.

“They are now splitting,” said an officer from inside the helicopter, speaking of the two suspects running from police through a field in Capel, Surrey, a small village located in the southern part of Surrey, England.

The group of young children and their families, totaling around 30 people altogether, had gathered in Capel on Good Friday, also known as Bank Holiday Friday in the UK, to take part in the annual Easter egg hunt when the two burglary suspects suddenly went racing through the field where the children were hunting around 2 p.m. local time. At the same time, the children noticed the helicopter flying above and realized a police chase was on.

In perfect unity, the children ingeniously decided to form the human arrow, pointing the helicopter towards the suspects. Unclear is how all the children, aged between 6 and 12, had the exact same idea to turn themselves into a human arrow at the exact same time, since the video uploaded to YouTube by the Redhill National Police Air Service (NPAS) only has volume from inside the helicopter.

Surrey Police later said on their website that the ingenuity of the children proved a great help to their crew, both above and below.

“A group of quick-thinking Capel youngsters on an Easter egg hunt found an ingenious way of getting a message to a National Police Air Service (NPAS) crew and Surrey Police officers chasing some fleeing men. They formed a human arrow in the middle of a field to point the helicopter in the right direction. The helicopter crew quickly relayed this information to officers on the ground and a short time later two men were arrested.”

The two men, ages 27 and 28, were being pursued by Redhill and Surrey police for breaking into a nearby abandoned building in Capel off Horsham Road in the borough of Mole Valley. NPAS Sgt. Paul Sochon said the group of Capel children probably never expected they would have to abandon their Easter egg hunt to assist in a police pursuit that Friday afternoon. Sochon went on to say that their human arrow proved to be invaluable in capturing the two suspects who have since been released on bail pending an investigation.

Newsmax reports that the NPAS crew actually landed the helicopter in the field to personally thank the children for forming their human arrow.

[Image via video screenshot]

Share this article: Human Arrow Helps Cops Track Down Burglars During Easter Egg Hunt
england London
More from Inquisitr