The police have launched a full-scale rescue operation for a group in Scotland believed to be involved in a suicide pact.
On Sunday, April 8, authorities arrived on the scene fire engines, several ambulances, and lifeboats where the group had set up camp near the water in Loch Leven. However, there was no one to rescue. Apparently, the campers are composed of families and friends who simply wanted to spend some time under the stars.
Camping Trip Gone Awry
"For some reason, the police had received a tip that we might be in grave danger and they came to rescue us," recounted Panagiotis Filis. "They really did a great job of rescuing us, the only issue is that we didn't need rescuing."
According to The Guardian, the authorities even broke into the cars of the group parked in the mainland in search for a suicide note.
"When we got on to dry land there was a police officer there and he had cuts all over his hand from breaking both the windows on my car," said Ross Anderson, a civil engineer. "It felt to me that they were all pumped up and ready to take on something when there was nothing to take on."
Additionally, when they had been ferried back to the mainland, about 50 people welcomed them.
No one exactly knows why the group was reported to the authorities or why someone thought they were off to kill themselves (and their kids) on the island. However, David Henderson thinks that it is because the group was dressed in black. The children who went on the camping trip also had paint on their faces similar to the band Kiss.
Henderson is a member of the heavy metal band Nyctopia. His colleague, Filis, is the founder of Black Metal Brewery. Each member of the group, including the kids, are fans of heavy metal.
"They kind of made us feel as if we did something wrong, but we just like to go wild camping, drink beer and listen to heavy metal music," Henderson added in his statement to The Scotsman.
At the end of the ordeal, he told BBC that he and the kids were forced to sleep in their cars with no light and no fire. He said that because the adults had already consumed alcohol, they were able to just drive away and go home.
In addition, they also had to pay for the broken windows of their cars.
Henderson, however, assured that the incident had not traumatized the kids who are still willing to go out camping again and listen to Alice Cooper or Metallica around the campfire.
