If you are a regular shopper at Home Bargains then you'll be familiar with the 'officer' at the door - a cardboard cut-out of a police officer or security guard placed at the entrance or exit to deter thefts.
However, one mum was left 'sobbing' when she noticed her daughter's response to life-like presence.
According to reports in Manchester Evening News, Amelia Perrin from London took her young daughter to a Home Bargains branch to pick up some shopping.
However, when she was paying, her daughter noticed one of the store's fake security guards by the door.
She clearly didn't know the man in a uniform was nothing but a cardboard cut out and it was her reaction that led the mum posting on Twitter.
She wrote: "My local home bargains has a cardboard cut out of a security guard by the door and as I'm paying my tiny baby daughter starts laughing and waving at it trying to get its attention, please excuse me while I SOB."
Home Bargains responded to Amelia with a heart emoji.
The story behind the man who became the Home Bargains police officer was investigated by Liverpool Echo in 2019 when a reporter attempted to discover the identity of the mystery man. In an updated article in August 2020, they wrote: "Setting out on the trail of the Home Bargains policeman, our search took us from the store's press team to local modelling agencies and ended up in an unlikely place."
After a long wild goose chase, somebody in the office managed to dig out who we believe to be the man behind the dodgy cut out.
A source told the ECHO: "From what I heard it’s actually one of Tom Morris' (the owner of Home Bargains) daughter's boyfriends from many years ago."
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