Seven police vehicles responded after man carrying bicycle repair kit walked into store

At least seven police vehicles were scrambled following reports of a man brandishing a knife and a hammer in a newsagents in Dundee, Scotland. But they were quickly stood down when it turned out that the customer had simply been carrying a bicycle repair kit. Officers received a call from shopkeeper Noor Ul-Haq, 35, who runs the KeyStore in the Hilltown. Mr Ul-Haq claimed that someone had entered his store carrying a knife and a hammer, as well as the keys to a bike chain.
Investigations soon revealed that there had been a misunderstanding. Witnesses spoke of seeing at least seven police cars on a nearby street while officers tried to track down the man believed to have been armed with the weapons. The incident happened shortly after noon on Monday. Mr Ul-Haq said: “He didn’t seem intent on causing any damage or doing anything criminal but was just walking about in the shop.
“But I wasn’t sure where he had come from or why he was carrying these things, so we called the police, who responded quickly. The man had left and headed down towards the blocks of flats by the time they arrived. I was very happy with the police and how they handled things. They were here very quickly and managed to track him down. One officer came back to explain what had happened and brought the tools with him to show them to me once they had tracked down the man.”

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “We were called over concerns for a man in a shop on the Hilltown. There was a misunderstanding with the shopkeeper and the man involving a bicycle repair kit. It appears to have been a false alarm with good intent.” One local resident said: “I just saw seven police cars come screaming down the road. I had no idea what was going on. That sort of thing is not unusual around here but I didn’t see police bringing anybody out or anything and it all seemed to be over quite quickly.”