Not a sports fan?

Gran arrested for failing to give ball back

A grandmother says she was arrested after her neighbour claimed she refused to return a football kicked into her garden.



Angela Hickling, 56, was taken to the police station, quizzed, fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample, reports the Telegraph.

Police searched her garden and every room in her house for the ball but failed to find it and dropped the case two days later for lack of evidence.

Mrs Hickling, of Heanor, Derbyshire, said: "I am flabbergasted. The whole episode was ridiculous. I find it unbelievable that the police would waste their time over such a trivial matter."

Mrs Hickling lives in a four-bedroom detached house with her husband, John, 60, and two of their three children, Sheryl, 21, and Haydn, 14.

Mr Hickling, a tiler, said the episode had been particularly hard on Haydn, who had special needs and relied heavily on his mother.

"To see her led away like that was devastating," he said. "She was really upset but tried to stay calm for his sake.

"To this day we know nothing about any football. Neither I or my wife have seen it."

A spokesman for Derbyshire police said: "We are duty-bound to investigate all criminal complaints that are made to us and this incident has been dealt with."

Wow...talk about overreacting...:rolleyes:

You would think searching the house and not finding said football would be enough.

WOW! Don't the cops have anything better to do with their time? Geez! :rolleyes:

LOL, the British police force :rolleyes:

Kids are always going to be playing football in the streets, we're a football-mad country and that will never change. However is it very annoying when the ball constantly rockets over the fence and squashes flowers, then you either get kids knocking on the door every 5 minutes, or kids simply climbing over the fence.

Many people I know simply pop the football if it comes over the fence. End of.

So I guess that would get them, say, a year's community service? :p :rolleyes: