'Gun' turns out to be phone as armed police rush to Wednesbury 'hold-up'
Armed police swarmed on a car where a passenger was seen holding a gun to the driver's head - only to find the 'gun' was a phone.
A panicked member of the public called police to report a man pointing a gun at the motorist's head in Wednesbury.
But when firearms officers tracked down the car it soon became clear the passenger was in fact holding a mobile phone to the driver's ear.
The comical incident was one of several armed West Midlands Police operations that took place last night - along with drug arrests and two other false alarms.
Officers from one armed response vehicle arrested two men, aged 36 and 43, on suspicion of possessing drugs with intent to supply after a chase in Walsall.
The team intercepted an Audi S3 on Wolverhampton Road at 9.30pm after receiving information that the car was linked to organised crime.
The passenger and the driver ran from the car and a carrier bag containing a large quantity of Class A drugs was seized along with the two suspects, who remain in police custody.
Meanwhile a 27-year-old from Handsworth was taken in for questioning after police found 20 bags of suspected crack cocaine in a vehicle in Sparkhill.
Police seized the vehicle in Woodlands Road in the early hours of this morning after a member of the public reported a suspicious vehicle.
Elsewhere armed officers responded to an emergency call in Tipton after a drunk man reported he was being threatened by a gun, but officers failed to find any evidence of the claim.
A malicious call was also made by a man in Sheldon who reported an armed kidnapping. He was taken for a mental health assessment.
Force Incident Manager Chief Inspector Andy Keast said: “Last night’s shift is a snap-shot of the kind of incidents our armed officers attend – detaining people we suspect are dangerous and involved in armed criminality but also having time taken up with false alarms and bogus calls.
“We have armed units out and about across the West Midlands all the time.
"They are in unmarked cars so people might not know they are on patrol – but rest assured they are primed to respond to emergency incidents as very short notice.
“We always take reports of suspected armed crime seriously so anyone who believes someone is in possession of a gun should dial 999 without hesitation.”
