A kidnap scare was sparked when motorists in Birmingham reported spotting a body crammed in the boot of a moving car.
But when police pulled the Vauxhall Astra over in Winson Green they found the luggage load to be a willing passenger − the driver’s daughter − who’d forsaken a back seat for a hefty fireplace being transported across the city!
The alert was raised just after 7pm on Tuesday (Sept 3) by a motorist travelling behind the suspect vehicle in Sparkbrook near the junction of Ladypool Road and Stratford Road.
Call handlers alerted response teams after being told the body − visible as the boot lid, tied down with string, was several inches ajar − appeared unconscious and fears of a potential kidnapping escalated as more concerned motorists reported sightings.
The force’s duty Kidnap & Extortion officer was notified, along with the Violent Crime Team, and quick-time checks made on national police computers against the vehicle.
But when police pulled the car over in Winson Green − having travelled through Ladywood and Belgrave Middleway − they discovered the ‘kidnap victim’ was in fact the driver’s daughter who’d agreed to travel in the boot!
The 57-year-old man, from Hollywood in south Birmingham, was cautioned for traffic offences and will later be summonsed to court for seat-belt and driving with an insecure load.
PC David Sherlock, who stopped the vehicle, said: “I was in Winson Green to take a statement when the driver of a car pulled up alongside me and said ‘there’s a body in that car’.
“I swung my car round in front of the Astra, demanded the key and then saw what appeared to be a body lying motionless in the boot.
“It transpired the driver was moving a large fireplace across town and couldn’t fit his daughter, who was in her 20s, in the vehicle so had dropped the back seats so she could lie across them and into the boot space.
“They didn’t appear to realise what they’d done wrong or the panic it had caused…it was shocking to think I’d found a dead body but luckily for all involved it turned out to be an ill-advised seating arrangement.”
West Midlands Police Inspector Greg Jennings described the driver’s actions as “neglectful and highly dangerous”.
He added: “Passengers should be secured by seatbelts in seats and not in boot spaces that aren’t designed to accommodate them; anyone foolish enough to do this is putting themselves in serious danger.
“This car has been driven across town for more than 20 minutes, stopping and starting at junctions, on busy roads and dual carriageways. There’s a danger the lady could have been injured by the fireplace, which is likely to have been unstable especially when cornering, and had the car been involved in a collision it could have had fatal consequences.”
