After hearing reports that an alligator was loose in a suburban neighborhood, Kansas City police rushed to a home and found a concrete, ornamental alligator. Except they didn't realize that's what it was right away:

After consulting a conservation agent, who told them to kill the gator if they felt it posed a danger, one of the officers shot it twice in the head before realizing something was up, said Tom Gentry, an Independence police spokesman.

"It didn't move," Gentry said. "They inched up closer and closer and discovered it was a mock-up of a real alligator made to look like it was real."

Link via Say Uncle | Photo: AP