"My son Duncan rang up and said there were armed police on the hill leading up to my house," resident Juliet Simpson, 85, told The Guardian. "Ten of them! By then I could see the helicopter above, and I thought, goodness me. So then I walked up the road and saw the police Land Rover. I went up and said: 'Do you want to be introduced to this tiger?'"
The "tiger" was actually a life-sized sculpture Simpson had assembled from chicken wire and resin more than 20 years ago.
Simpson said the officers were amused by the mix-up and posed for photos with the tiger sculpture.
"They liked the model and said they thought it was very lifelike. They said they had to respond to people's concerns," Simpson said.
Simpson's granddaughter, Martha, posted photos of the sculpture and the amused police officers to Twitter.
"My Granny is a sculptress. Today 10 armed police and a helicopter were called to her house after walkers reported a tiger in the woods. This is the tiger," she wrote.
