UK police mocked over botched e-fit of criminal

It was supposed to help track down a burglar — but instead, this hilariously botched picture has been compared to a “Lego character”.

Police who released a picture hoping to find a suspect have instead found themselves at the centre of a viral photo fail.

Last week, police from Northamptonshire in England shared an Electronic Facial Identification Technique (E-Fit) image of a man they were hoping to speak with regarding a burglary.

According to Northamptonshire Police, a man knocked on a door of a woman’s home in the area in mid-April, claiming there were sewerage issues and that he needed to check her pipes.

But while she spoke with the man about the issue in her back garden, another person entered the property and made off with some cash.

Police shared the photo of the suspect on Facebook, asking him or anyone who recognised him to get in touch.

But within moments Facebook users were slamming the photo fail, which shows a male with a bizarrely stretched head and odd haircut.

Many social media users claimed the image resembled a Lego or video game character or even Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies instead of a human being.

“Pretty sure I’ve seen this guy on Wii Sports,” one Facebook user quipped, while another added: “He was in Goldeneye on the N64”.

“This breaks my heart, he was my favourite Lego of all time,” another joked, while another asked: “Are they using MS Paint 98 to do these?”

The post has already received thousands of likes, shares and comments, with people around the world sharing a laugh at the bumbling cops’ expense.

However, it’s not the first time authorities’ efforts to capture a suspect’s likeness has been ridiculed.

Last year, police from Warwickshire in the United Kingdom were similarly mocked after they released an image of a burglary suspect with a stretched, toothy grin many compared to the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

We've issued an efit for of a suspect in a distraction burglary in Stratford in February. If you have any information please contact us. https://t.co/NipFniL1ed pic.twitter.com/oGiYfxIi2e

— Warwickshire Police (@warkspolice) April 3, 2018

The reaction to that image was so significant police released a second statement on Twitter explaining the picture was “real” and that officers “anticipated the attention”.

“But jokes aside, it was created from a description provided and it’s serious as a woman was the victim of a horrible crime. Hopefully the attention will mean we identify the offender/bring him to justice quicker,” the tweet continued.

E-Fits are created using a computer render of a suspect’s face drawn from composites of descriptions of their appearance and distinguishing features.

While these two examples appear less than lifelike, experts claim they are often more accurate than traditional paper and pencil sketches.

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