A workman who was seen climbing over a garden gate to carry out some work was mistakenly believed to be a burglar.

Essex Police received a call from an eye-witness in Chigwell today (Wednesday, January 22) who thought they had witnessed suspicious activity.

Officers from Loughton based Community Policing Team, Town Centre Team, Local Policing Team, CID and centrally based dog section arrived at the scene minuates after the phone call.

Just to clarify, the workman that got the shock was legitimately on the premises.

Brentwood & Epping Forest Community Policing Team tweeted: “Units run on blues and twos until close to the location in Chigwell when they go dark not to alert the criminal of their approach. First unit on scene in eight minutes.

“Workman gets a shock.

“Call with good intent from the member of the public with which we have no issue.”

“We would rather receive these calls than be called by a home owner who has come home to discover that they have been burgled and then have someone contact us after the event and tell us that they had seen something suspicious whilst the burglary was occurring.”