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UK: West Mercia police helicopter hit twice in one night

The Shropshire Star reports that the West Mercia police helicopter was targeted twice by laser pens, in separate incidents early in the morning of December 17 2011.

The first one occurred as the crew was investigating a burglary in Telford. Ground units arrested a man on suspicion of endangering an aircraft. He admitted aiming the laser at the helicopter and was “cautioned”. (It is not clear whether any subsequent action will be taken against the unnamed man.) The laser pen was seized.

The second incident happened as the helicopter was assisting with a traffic stop. It is not known if anyone was arrested for lasing the aircraft during this occurrence.

A Telford Police spokeswoman was quoted as saying “Police will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. It is extremely dangerous…. Anyone found participating in such behaviour will be arrested and dealt with.”

On their Twitter feed, the air crew said that persons on the ground don’t realize how easy it is to find them: “It’s just like the bat signal. We can see exactly where they are and they get arrested.”

From the
Shropshire Star, ShropshireLive.com and BBC News Shropshire