A frantic 999 call saw police and coastguards swoop on a Welsh beach after the caller thought a corpse had washed up on the shore.
Emergency crews descended on Kenfig Sands in Bridgend on Monday after the phone call from a concerned member of the public who saw a strange object that looked like human remains. However, the search operation took an unexpected twist after the "body" that had been washed up was actually a pink headless mannequin.
A spokesperson for Port Talbot Coastguard said: "Early on Monday the team were paged to an investigation at MV Altmark Wreck on Kenfig Sands. When on-scene the team did a search of the area and discovered the object was an old mannequin washed ashore. We would like to thank the first informant who did the right thing and rang 999 and asked for the Coastguard. Also in attendance was South Wales Police and Tata Steel Security. A big thank you to Tata Security for their assistance in access and search of the area. Great work by all. If you need help on or around the coast, dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard!" For more stories about Port Talbot go here
Read more: EDF wants to build a huge renewable energy park in Neath Port Talbot
A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency added: "Port Talbot Coastguard Rescue Team joined South Wales Police to investigate a report just before 1.15pm on Monday (September 5) of an unidentified item which washed ashore at Kenfig Sands. After a search, the item turned out to be a mannequin."
The everyday heroes who put their lives on the line around Wales’ coast to save strangers
Back in February, we spoke with some of the Port Talbot locals who volunteer at RNLI Port Talbot - and put their lives on the line every week to save lives at sea.
"We're all on-call 24/7. The thing about what we do is that you can't predict it," one of the volunteers Ceri Jeffreys told us. "You learn very quickly there's no point trying to predict what will happen. You've just always got to be ready."
Ceri, 53, "grew up on the sea," he said. His childhood and college days were spent splashing about in the waves and chartering boats. In his early adulthood he moved all around Britain and the world in various jobs but was always interested in a job that involved being at sea though he was never in the right place or had the time to look into it properly, he said.
Want the latest Neath Port Talbot news straight to your inbox? We send our email subscribers a newsletter twice per week with the latest news from the region. Sign up here
Seven years ago he moved back to Port Talbot where he had grown up. On his first night in his new home he took a stroll to his local Chinese takeaway to order his dinner. Sitting on a chair waiting for his food to be cooked Ceri picked up the newspaper on the chair next to him and flicked through.
The paper, WalesOnline's sister newspaper the South Wales Evening Post, featured an advert for the RNLI and Port Talbot lifeboat station. Ceri got in touch. "They were concerned I was a little too old to be crew, as you have to train for two years to become boat crew, but there's always a job for you so they put me on shore crew," he said.
"Then, when they realised I was fit enough, I was promoted to boat crew. I started my training, trained for two years and then I was on boat crew for a couple of years. Then I was put back on shore crew and was the driver launching the lifeboats. Now I'm the launch authority. I've done most things in the RNLI – in my six years I've had 30 years of experiences."
You can read more from our interview with Ceri in a previous article here
READ NEXT
- Woman whose dog died after being attacked by pit bull gets £3,000 bill
- Building with 'historic local importance' threatened with demolition
- Man 'tried to set dogs on police' and then starts fire in police van after he's arrested
- Young Welsh woman dies after falling ill at Creamfields music festival
- First look inside transformed Plaza cinema in Port Talbot
