‘BIG cat’ sightings have been reported to Cumbria Police nearly 450 times over in the last three years, new figures confirm.
The reports are just one category among a host of weird and wonderful emergency calls which are regularly handled by the control room staff based at the Cumbrian force’s Carleton Hall HQ near Penrith.
Figures obtained exclusively list some of the stranger "emergency calls" that staff have had which often have little or nothing to do with crime.
Over the three years to January this year, force staff have taken:
* 448 calls about sightings of ‘big cats’ of various kinds.