On Tuesday, the Greater Manchester Police advised about the incident on their Facebook page. According to the post, the elderly woman had withdrawn a quantity of money and then went grocery shopping. While in the store she was accosted by another woman who demanded her cash. Police said the 86-year-old “defended herself by repeatedly hitting the female offender over the head with a packet of bacon.” The other woman then left the store and the elderly woman appeared to continue her shopping.
It was an interesting story until Altrincham Today managed to get a copy of the CCTV footage from the store. There was hardly “a beating,” with bacon or otherwise.
The video shows the elderly woman, wearing a white and blue top, pushing a cart and selecting items from the shelves. Another woman, dressed in white, approaches her and stands in front of the cart. It is alleged the second woman demanded the cash the first woman obtained from the cash machine but the 86-year-old did not give it up.
The elderly woman then reaches into her cart, pulls out a package of bacon, and takes a swing at the would-be thief as she is walking away. It is difficult to tell but the second woman may or may not have been struck on the arm by the pork product as she walked away.
If the exaggerated story of the beating was not enough, the Greater Manchester Police used the hashtag #BeatOffWithBacon in their Facebook post. This, as well as the beating that wasn’t, set off some interesting social media posts. As Huffington Post reports, one post said the police should really rethink their hashtag. Another person asked in a Facebook post if we are going to ignore beat off with bacon.
A further post questioned why Americans have guns when they can just use bacon.
Police said the elderly woman was shaken up and are asking anyone with information to contact them. They have not commented on why they described the incident as a beating or why they used the hashtag they did.
