Man 'shocked' at police advice to hide knife

A youth worker who found a combat knife while walking to work has said he was "shocked and disappointed" by the response from police after he was advised to "hide it under something" near a closed police station.

Greg Ward, who runs the Cheylesmore Youth Group, called 101 to report the knife, but ended up ignoring their advice and took it home, where it was later recovered by officers.

Ward said he was surprised at the lack of information he was given by the police operator.

West Midlands Police said it was "always grateful to the local community for sharing information, as we work hard to take weapons off the streets of the West Midlands".

Ward described the weapon as "a Rambo-style knife" with a blade and handle measuring about 14 ins (35 cms), adding that "my first instinct was I couldn't leave it there".

He called 101 for advice, and "the operator asked if I could take it to a police station", he said, "but I explained Little Park Street was closed".

"I was then told to either leave it there or hide it under something and officers would come out 'at some point'."

Ward said: "I thought there would have been a better procedure or policy for them to be able to say that there's a weapons box at Little Park Street, which I only found out afterwards. She didn't mention any of that to me on the phone.

"I was quite shocked and disappointed with the response and obviously not getting any clearer understanding on it because it could have been used for anything."

West Midlands Police said it had more than 35 weapons surrender bins across the West Midlands, including one at Coventry Central Police Station on Little Park Street.

In a statement, it said: "On Wednesday morning at around 07:15, we received a report that a knife had been found in Coventry city centre.

"By 09:00, officers had attended and seized the knife to be taken into police property."

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