ON reading the news item headed "Police shed crocodile fears over toy story", in Saturday's edition of the Western Daily Press, my first thought was that someone had confused August 23 with April 1.

For it beggars belief to hear that the police and RSPCA deemed it necessary to close roads over an escaped 2ft cayman in a suburban front garden because of fears for public safety.

About the only person who would need to be wary of such a creature would be Tom Thumb.

Furthermore, why was it necessary to compound the charade by staking the creature out for 30 minutes?

Were they waiting for back-up from Crocodile Dundee?

I'm not an expert on reptilian metabolism, but I understand that these creatures are cold blooded, and at 8.30am on a typical British August morning the animal would have been virtually comatose irrespective of whether it was digesting a bird or not, and thus would have been easily captured by a single constable armed with a net.

Then, after road closures, a 30-minute stake-out and heaven alone knows how much wasted money, the creature was found to be a toy. The whole episode was in the best traditions of Dad's Army.

All joking aside, it's precisely this sort of hysterical over-reaction to situations that could easily be resolved by the application of a little old-fashioned common sense that does nothing to improve reputation of the powers-that-be in the eyes of the general public.

A G Nanson Gloucester