A Chinese takeaway delivery man has admitted he is the mystery figure dressed as Batman who handed an alleged criminal into a Yorkshire police station in the middle of the night.
The CCTV images of Stan Worby (39), dressed as the Caped Crusader in a Bradford police station went around the world.
He was caught on camera at Trafalgar House police station in the centre of the West Yorkshire city handing in his friend, 27-year-old Danny Frayne.
Mr Frayne was wanted by police and Mr Worby said he agreed to go with him to the station after he had been to London for Bradford City’s Capital One Cup Final clash with Swansea City, just over a week ago.
He told ITV Daybreak: “Obviously it was done as a joke.”
Asked how he felt about the worldwide coverage of his exploits, Mr Worby said: “Gobsmacked. I didn’t expect this. At the end of the day it was a practical joke, just between me and Daniel.”
West Yorkshire Police officers had not known the identity of the man posing as the camp 1960s incarnation of the famous DC Comics character.
Mr Frayne, of Queen Street, Buttershaw, Bradford, had been wanted in connection with a number of alleged offences. He was later charged with handling stolen goods and fraud-related offences, and will appear before magistrates on Friday.
The mystery was announced by the neighbourhood police team for the Buttershaw area of Bradford on their Facebook page.
They said: “Last week we had a very strange occurrence at the police station when a male wanted for an offence on our area was ‘escorted’ into our helpdesk at Trafalgar House by Batman.
“Batman came into the helpdesk, stated to the staff ‘I’ve caught this one for you’ and then promptly vanished into the night to fight crime and the fear of crime in Bradford. The whole bizarre incident was captured on CCTV.”
The officers added: “This post is meant as a bit of a light-hearted news.”
A later post from the officers in Buttershaw said “Inspector Alan Rhees-Cooper said that officers had made diligent inquiries in the local community to locate this individual.
“This often leads to members of the community assisting the police or to the individual themselves voluntarily attending the police station to speak to the police.”
One of the Police Community Support Officers said in another post that they had been looking for the man but “Ultimately Batman beat us to the punch... Until next time, Batman, until next time!!!”
PA