Nottingham woman told by police to bin knife found in garden

Nottinghamshire Police said knives could be disposed of in household bins

A woman said she was shocked after police told her to throw away a knife found in her garden.

Joanne Haslam, from Carrington, Nottingham, said the blade was found by her nine-year-old niece on Sunday when she was playing football with a friend.

The 39-year-old said police refused to attend after the knife was discovered, and shared concerns about anti-social behaviour near her home.

A force spokesman said residents could dispose of discarded weapons safely.

Ms Haslam said she "went a bit mad" when she saw the knife and called the 101 non-emergency number, but was only given advice on how she could wrap up the weapon before putting it in a bin.

"There was no report of an incident happening around this area, so [they] won't come and collect it," she said.

"I felt like someone should have fetched it and had a look at it."

'Petrified child'

The call handler "didn't seem interested", Ms Haslam said, and failed to recognise her concerns about how it ended up in her garden or what it could have been used for.

"I wanted to shout and swear at them down the phone - if it was me picking it up I wouldn't have been so bothered, but because my niece picked it up, and she's nine," she said.

"My niece's friend was petrified and wouldn't come back into my garden until the knife had gone, so my niece and her friend played in their garden, because they were scared."

In a statement, Nottinghamshire Police - which is currently running Operation Sceptre, a national scheme to reduce knife crime - said it advises people to report such incidents to 101 "as this resident has done".

"Knives can be disposed of in household bins, so long as they are packaged up safely, and labelled to say contains sharp object inside," it said.

"After packaging up the knives, they can also be disposed of at a local recycling centre/waste management centre - metal knives can go in the scrap metal skip."