Landlord sparks panic by turning pub into mock murder scene for policeman's leaving party

A landlord sparked panic in a sleep rural town when he celebrated a policeman's retirement by turning his pub into a mock murder scene.

Pete Williams, 59, went to bizarre lengths at his pub in Spalding, Lincolnshire, to mark the retirement of the town's chief of police Stuart Brotherton.

Landlord Pete decked out the front of the boozer with CSI-style police tape and chalk body outlines drawn on the pavement outside.

Pete even erected mock floral tributes for the non-existent murder victims and spread ketchup on the floor to recreate splatters of blood last week.

But the pub boss says he was shocked when he was suddenly inundated with phone calls from concerned members of the public convinced a major crime had taken place.

Pete received over 20 calls from worried locals believed a murder had occurred in their quaint market town.

Pete - who has ran the pub for the past 15 years - said: 'I must have had 20 or so phone calls from people throughout the evening and they genuinely thought something had happened.

'I had loads of people calling just asking what was going on, and if it was anyone they knew. People are not used to serious crimes around these parts.

'The amusing thing is that if any of them had tried to call 999 to find out what was going on they wouldn't have got anyone because all the police were here.'

Pete said staff spent over £200 buying genuine police uniform to wear and decking the pub out with a crime-scene theme.

He added:'We just thought we could make a nice party for him and go a few extra miles.

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'We bought all the uniforms from a surplus store, and we even bought some special scanners so that every bank note used by the police would have to be checked for authenticity if then tried to buy anything.

'We put up the tape around the whole place and then members of staff lay down so we could draw outlines.

'We put some tomato sauce and squirted it around the chalk to make it look more real.

'The guy who runs the fish and chip shop next door went and got some flowers to put down.

'It was all worth it for a great send off for Stuart, who has been a really great local policeman for the last 30 years.'

Local resident Richard Thomson, 54, who passed by the pub last week said he got his wife to phone the landlord to find out what was going on.

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He said: 'I was going to my car and I got the shock of my life when I saw the windows all taped up and these chalk marks outside .

'We really thought there was something really bad happening there. They should have given people some warning.'

However, florist Marie Parker, 50, laughed off the incident and said: 'People aren't used to seeing real crime scenes around here so you can see how they confused it, I suppose.