A VIGILANTE group was set up in Dawlish nearly 30 years ago threatening to dish out rough justice to vandals and petty criminals.
Posters around the town in 1993 warned of handcuffing and humiliation of offenders, but police were unsure whether it was a hoax or for real.
Handbills were pushed through the letterboxes to announce the new ‘service’, but there were no contact details for the group.
Police warned that anybody taking the law into their own hands could end up falling foul of the law themselves.
The anonymous sheet declared: ‘Warning. This town now has its own vigilante service.
‘Thirty three members of the group are sharing the day and night patrol system in five man rotations.
‘During the day any vandals caught in the act will have the luxury of being taken to the police.
‘After dark they will be considered fair game for public humiliation by whatever methods seems appropriate at the time.
‘Normally they will be handcuffed to a lamp post’.
Sergeant Gordon Brown of Teignmouth police described the leaflet as ‘totally irresponsible.’
He said: ‘We will be making enquirers to find out what all this is about.
‘It sounds almost childish in a way and might be some sort of practical joke, but we have to take it seriously until we know for sure.
‘We welcome public co-operation, but setting up vigilante type groups is not the answer to combating crime.
‘And certainly threats of handcuffing people to lamposts would be condemned out of hand.
‘It could be a most dangerous practice and lead to charges of kidnapping or unlawful detention against whoever did it.
June Collis, the mayor of Dawlish, also hit out at the vigilantes, and added: ‘I am not aware of any big surge in vandalism lately, and would suggest this sort of thing is left to the police.
‘I certainly hope the group does not take to the streets in such a manner.’
Earlier in the year two men in Moretonhampstead set up a vigilante group following a spate of car thefts in the town centre.