A SCOTS local has left his community in stitches after he appeared to spot a big cat in the nearby campsite – or did he?
Jon Freck had been noticing an influx of ‘lost animals’ appeals on his community group page recently, so decided to devise a lighthearted prank to play into the trend.
Jon from Ness, Isle of Lewis works at a local skip – where he is surrounded by all sorts of unusual throwaways and discarded items.
So, after finding a brown hobby horse and a large toy tiger dumped in the skip, Jon decided to have a little fun.
Jon began his ruse by placing the surprisingly life-like horse in the middle of a field on the nearby Uncles Croft Campsite, even tying it to a pole for added realism, before snapping a picture.
He posted the photo to social media last Monday, writing: “Found this pony wandering about Fivepenny, stuck it on the croft to keep it safe, can the owner please come and collect.”
Seemingly fooling several users and thus spurred on by the chuckles, Jon upped the prank with the use of his big cat.
Jon decided to prop the toy tiger up in the field, partially hidden by a crop of long grass, and stood back to capture a grainy snap – resemblant to the quality often seen in photos claiming to be of big cats.
The image shows the orange and black striped cat sitting in the long grass and upon a brief glance, could fool some into thinking it was real.
Jon posted the image to social media later that day joking: “Too late now, tiger got the pony.”
The posts received over 1,000 likes and more than 120 comments as many were left chuckling at Jon’s mischief.
One person wrote: “Shame the tiger ate the pony because you could have hired it out for beach rides”.
Another said: “I want some of what you’re taking, Jon”.
A third commented: “Keep them coming. When I saw the photo of the pony I thought it was a real one.
“Then, when the tiger photo came up I realised it was a toy one.”
A fourth added: “Nearly gave myself a fright”.
A fifth joked: “You’ll get a nose bleed with all this frivolity.”
Speaking to Jon today he said: “There have been a lot of posts on the Ness page lately regarding various animals on the loose, which we’ve all been talking about.
“I’d rescued the pony from the local skip where I work and decided to join the trend.
“It went down well so I kept it going. All the other items are also rescued from the skips, which we put on our croft Campsite to entertain our campers.”
