Found an unattended rucksack.

[Moofreemum1]

Found a plain black unattended rucksack in a children park a min ago. I was with my toddler and didn't want to touch it. Didn't know what was in it e.g. drugs or now adays who knows what's in there. So I called the non emergency number and they said they don't have resources to go and check it.
Was I being unreasonable calling them? She said may be you could go back and check? Made me feel stupid for ringing. It prob is the case someone left it there but you can never be too careful now adays. So was ibu?

I used to find bags in my local park that were leftovers from muggings & thefts. I'd imagine it was that.

My nosiness would have got the better of me.

I saw an abandoned rucksack at Trafalgar Square a month or so ago. I kept looking at it and after 20mins informed an official looking bloke near the toilets. He yelled out to a litter picker who promptly picked it up and threw it in his bin 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was the same weekend when all the green protests were going on.

I would certainly call if I found an unattended backpack.
My colleagues found one in the lobby of our workplace a few years ago, building evacuated and police arrived in about 3 mins! Everyone took it seriously. London though. But I wouldn't take a risk anywhere.

Assume all the posters thinking the op overreacted are too young to remember what it was like. No litter bins. Anywhere. Because of this kind of shit. One of the many tragic things about tbe Warrington bomb was that they had just started to put them back in town centres. Bastards used them for the bomb.

You did the right thing, op. I would tell your MP that apparently the police don't have the resources to check out suspicious packages in public areas where there are lots of children

An abandoned item isnt automatically assumed to be a suspicious package though. There has to be something to warrant it & a rucksack in a park certainly wouldn't meet the criteria as suspicious where I work. It's about risk assessment. Having said that wed probably have taken the call and had someone go out and pick it up when available but there is nothing fron the OPs post that would warrant it being upgraded to suspicious package level. It would most likely be looked at as a lost property collection

I wouldn't have touched it.

But I'd love to know where the drug dealers that have deals large enough to require a rucksack to hold are just abandoning £K's of shit accidentally.

No I am not too young to know what living with the fear of bombs is like. I was working in Ulster during "the troubles". I think it has actually made me realistic of when to be worried and when not to be.

The only drug dealers I have ever known that have drugs in bags in parks are drug dealers who stash drugs under a bush and sell drugs in the park. They do this so if the police come, they have no drugs on them. But if you make any attempt to actually pick up their stashed bag, they will soon let you know. Drug dealers do not just walk away and leave a bag of drugs in the park to be found by a mum with her toddler.

An abandoned rucksack IS automatically a suspicious package.

@longtompot I thought they didn't know where Charlie Rowley found the Perfume/Novichock as he couldn't remember but Lizzy Gardens was an area he hung out in and regularly went through the bins there, anyway I would still look in an unattended bag as it would most likely be just that, an unattended bag.

How do people know what drug dealers do with their stuff?? Can't say I do

I work with the police in SE London op.

I'm very impressed that a pp has a train!

@thighofrelief101 has a train?

I’d have just opened it and had a look to see if anything could be traced back to find the owner.

Oh and lived through the troubles, and escaped the Brixton bomber.

OP you didn't overreact! It was drummed HARD into me never to touch an abandoned bag as a child in the late 80s/early 90s. You just never know what's inside and it's better to be safe.

I second contacting your MP about it, that's not okay at all. Despite the IRA trouble being quite long ago now (for now), it wasn't all THAT long ago that the tube/bus systems in London were being bombed by improvised exposive devices in buckets and rucksacks. You'd be mad to open up an abandoned bag.

I wouldn't have touched it either. It was drummed into me during the IRA days.

OP you did the right thing.

I stewarded at an event last year - turned around and a rucksack was there in the middle of the walkway. Coincidentally just as a member of the Royal Family was due to come past. My heart dropped. Started shouting 'who's bag is this!' when there was no answer was just about to call it in when two women came back for it. Oh I did really give them a bollocking they were in their 70's at least and stood there mumbling sorry.

I know a quiet playground is a bit different but still - I've always been taught an unattended bag is a risk.

escaped the Brixton bomber

I’m always intrigued by stories like this, do you mean you escaped injury?

Transport police are pushing this see it say it sort it slogan all over. So I’d say you did the right thing.

@jennymanara stop making sense you’ll be disliked

@fancy yes.

I agree. I'd neve touch an abandoned bag! Had it drummed into me as a child in London.

I've just grown up with these terrorist attacks and abandoned bags/parcels etc. It may seem a small risk at a park but I think in summer if lots of kids went that way after school it could still be pretty awful. I'm going back to the park Friday as my son wants to go again so will see if it's there still.