Helicopter
Mayukh Saha
Mayukh Saha
April 27, 2023 ·  3 min read

These 12 Kids And A Dog Were Dubbed As The Crime-Busting Heroics

A Tiffy Taffy Highlight Story: Sometimes there are stories that are just too good, too beautiful, or too unbelievable to keep locked away. That’s why we scour the archives and bring some of them back to enjoy again. They may make you smile or shed a tear, but they’re always meant to add a little positivity to your day. This story is from April 2016. Enjoy! 

If one has grown up reading books like The Secret Seven, Famous Five, or even Nancy Drew, the fascination with solving crimes would be enmeshed in them. But those are fiction, stories created out of imagination. Yet, in 2016, a gang of kids made a ‘Human Arrow’, and helped cops catch a couple of robbers. The crime-busting technique that they used could be considered to be extremely ingenious- and one would think that the idea was indeed quite genius- given the circumstances. The group of kids has also been named ‘Tremendous Twelve’ for you can never have a gang of kid crimefighters until their name is an alliteration. 

The Human Arrow gang rose to fame online after they created, as the name goes, a human arrow to direct a police search aircraft to two evading suspects of burglary. And what’s really adorable in this entire situation is that they had a dog as well- a Yorkshire Terrier named Molly. The kids talked about their experiences with The Mail, and the euphoria was quite palpable. They said, “We feel really proud- it was awesome.” The kids were actually conducting an Easter egg search of their own in the field which is quite close to Capel, Surrey- when they ended up noticing the helicopter hovering overhead. The gang comprised kids between the ages of six and twelve. 

One of the kids of the ‘Human Arrow’, a nine-year-old girl, mentioned, “It was really noisy and we could see it said ‘police’ on the bottom. Then we saw a man running along the side of the field. We saw the man take his jumper off and put it around his head.” Initially, the kids tried to shout to the pilot, but they couldn’t get through.

Read: The Boy Miraculously Rescues His Father From Being Crushed By A Car And Says Angels Helped Him

The human arrow that the kids made to point to the burglars.
Image Cedit: Surrey Police

Human Arrow Kids Helped Cops Apprehend Burglars

The kids further stated that despite their best attempts at screaming and asking the chopper to point in a different direction- the pilot had maneuvered it in a completely different direction. Then they struck upon a genius idea. The little girl said, “‘Let’s get into an arrow’, two of my friends then said, and we took position on the ground.” After being in this position for about a minute, the children could see the helicopter approaching their way.

The Human Arrow helped the cops catch two males, 28 and 27 after the pilot alerted the authorities that were stationed on the ground about their location. They had been interrogated on suspicion of burgling a nearby farm. Another girl from the group said, “They stated they believed we were playing around at first, but they followed our arrow and caught the men. We’re quite proud of what we accomplished.” The video that was later released showed how the pilot of the helicopter had noticed the kids trying to create an arrow and was pointing it in the direction of the suspects. Needless to say, the kids did win fame after the Police released the video of this interesting human arrow. 

The Human Arrow kids also liked the attention naturally, according to Ben Brearly, the parent of one of the kids. As it turns out, some people also compared them to the characters out of an Enid Blyton or a Scooby Doo book- quite natural, in fact. Paul Sochon, the Surrey Police Sergeant mentioned, “The initiative they displayed was vital.

Keep Reading: 16-Year-Old Hero Jumps Into River To Save 3 Teen Girls As Their Car Sinks. He Also Rescues Cop Who Swam Out To Help Girls But Started To Struggle

Sources:

  1. Kids form human arrow to help police helicopter catch suspected burglars – video.” The Guardian. NPAS Redhill. April 1, 2016.