The young British undercover police officer was sure he was closing in on his suspect. In fact, the plainclothes officer had this confirmed via his radio link to the CCTV control room.

The probationary officer from Sussex Police could barely contain himself when he was told he was closing in on a suspect  who was “acting suspiciously” in the area.

However, life is never that simple… the CCTV operator was actually watching the young police officer on the CCTV screen and not a suspect. Not realizing this and knowing that there was an officer in the area, he kept telling the officer on the end of the radio he was “hot on his heels.” Unfortunately, he was hot on his own heels.

The young officer valiantly chased the “suspect” for around 20 minutes, before a sergeant wandered into the CCTV control room to see what was going on, he immediately recognized the young policeman running around the streets and realized that the lad was, in fact, chasing himself. The sympathetic sergeant immediately burst into fits of laughter and later told the tale to a monthly police magazine in the UK.

The plainclothes operation was put into effect in the Sussex market town, following a spate of shop break-ins and young probationary officers are always very keen to put in a couple of hours of extra duty on such occasions.

Sussex police would not comment on the operation or even confirm that the incident took place, however, a spokesman did say, “policing is often a serious business, so we all enjoy moments of light relief.”