For years, mysterious big cats have been spotted throughout the developed world in areas where they’re not native.

In South Australia, there has been a legend of a black panther prowling through the state’s south-east for decades.

But it has never been captured.

So it was little wonder when police officers in Britain received a call about a “large apex predator” at a local park, they took it seriously.

The Horsham Police officers were summoned to a park in the Steyning area of West Sussex to respond to a report of a cat on the loose.

And they found one.

But it just happened to be of the plush variety.

The local department said: “It may be a stuffed toy, but the attending officers didn’t necessarily know that at first”.