Northumbria Police force mocked over stolen beach towel post

A police force has been criticised by Facebook users for posting an appeal for witnesses to a beach towel theft.

The post has received hundreds of comments asking if it was a joke and complaining Northumbria Police should be concentrating on "serious crimes".

A number of people mentioned attacks, thefts and anti-social behaviour they thought the force should deal with instead.

The force said it took all reports of crime seriously.

The appeal was put on its Facebook page on Thursday.

Within in an hour 150 people had replied, calling it "ridiculous", a "waste of time and money" and a "late April fool".

One comment, from Tracy Harman, said the post seemed "a little trivial".

"To see this after hundreds of pounds worth of stuff was stolen from my car and never recovered, with the case closed pretty quickly as unsolved, is a bit much. It might have helped to have this kind of appeal."

A few comments hoped the post had been intended "to show everyone the stupidity of what some people actually report to the police and expect them to deal with".

Pauline McIntosh said she was "glad they have a sense of humour" and that it had made her day.

By 12:30 BST on Friday the original post had received nearly 600 comments and had been shared more than 1,000 times.

The force spokesman said: "We have received some interesting comments that we will learn from.

"As our communities should expect, we take all reports of crime seriously and victims are our main priority when we set about solving them.

"Indeed, the interest this current issue has generated demonstrates how effective social media can be in reaching large audiences very quickly.

"The appeal regarding the stolen towel was very much intended to be a local request for information so we didn't expect quite so much interest from so far afield.

"We realise we seem to have kicked sand in our own face and so we may have to ride the wave on this one as we continue to try and find the best ways to use social media to generate interest and information to help solve crimes."