Warwickshire Police defend e-fit that went viral

Police in Warwickshire have been forced to confirm that a bizarre e-fit image of a wanted burglar which went viral on social media was not a hoax.

Officers released the mock-up to appeal for help identifying the suspect, wanted in connection with a break-in in Stratford-upon-Avon - but instead the bizarre image attracted an unwanted kind of publicity online.

“Since the image was issued by police, it has had more than 800 re-tweets on Twitter and 600 likes on Facebook,” says the Coventry Telegraph.

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The unusual portrait provoked plenty of mirth among social media users:

While others offered their own tongue-in-cheek “leads”:

The police have now responded to the storm of attention, saying they “anticipated” the potential for mockery.

“We can confirm that this is real and that we anticipated the attention!” Warwickshire Police posted on Twitter on Wednesday. “But jokes aside, it was created from a description provided and it's serious as a woman was victim of a horrible crime.”

The force took a phlegmatic view of the viral attention the efit has garnered, saying: "Hopefully the attention will mean we identify the offender/bring him to justice quicker."

Earlier this year, a cartoon-style portrait of a wanted thief in Pennsylvania was ridiculed online as the “worst police sketch ever”. However, police later confirmed that the childlike scrawl had helped lead to the identification of the offender.