Scottish police executed a full-scale rescue operation complete with fire engines, lifeboats and ambulances after mistaking a group of heavy metal fans on a camping trip for a suicide pact.
As the Courier reports, the group — which included three adults, three children and a dog — had sailed out to Reed Bower Island in Loch Leven last Saturday night (April 7). A witness on the shore called police after spotting their boat, concerned that the group had sailed out with the intent to kill themselves.
Camper David Henderson, a modern languages teacher and vocalist in black metal outfit Nyctopia, told the CBC that the witness "saw three guys, one wearing corpse paint, and the kids were all wearing black and had cloaks and had corpse paint, as well...I guess she assumed we had kidnapped them and we were taking them off."
Police were quick to send the aforementioned full search and rescue team, which also included a helicopter, to find the group. The adults and children were taken to shore separately, with police also smashing the windows of the campers' parked car in search of a suicide note.
Henderson added that after the scene cleared, police left them in the parking lot to spend the rest of the night in their vehicle.
"Obviously, because we had had a few beers each, we couldn't drive, and the police knew that as well, so we were stranded there," he said. "[The police] took us from a place where we had our fire, we had our teepee, we had our food and we were all comfortable."
As the Courier reports, the group — which included three adults, three children and a dog — had sailed out to Reed Bower Island in Loch Leven last Saturday night (April 7). A witness on the shore called police after spotting their boat, concerned that the group had sailed out with the intent to kill themselves.
Camper David Henderson, a modern languages teacher and vocalist in black metal outfit Nyctopia, told the CBC that the witness "saw three guys, one wearing corpse paint, and the kids were all wearing black and had cloaks and had corpse paint, as well...I guess she assumed we had kidnapped them and we were taking them off."
Police were quick to send the aforementioned full search and rescue team, which also included a helicopter, to find the group. The adults and children were taken to shore separately, with police also smashing the windows of the campers' parked car in search of a suicide note.
Henderson added that after the scene cleared, police left them in the parking lot to spend the rest of the night in their vehicle.
"Obviously, because we had had a few beers each, we couldn't drive, and the police knew that as well, so we were stranded there," he said. "[The police] took us from a place where we had our fire, we had our teepee, we had our food and we were all comfortable."
