Arena Health and Fitness in Newark Nottinghamshire broken into as police investigate and assure the public that no mannequins were tasered

A gym owner joked that police had tasered their mannequin in a case of mistaken identity after a break-in on Saturday night.

Arena Health and Fitness UK's Facebook page made light of their misfortune.

"Besides a glass door smashed to pieces, the only other casualty has been a poor mannequin who was sadly tasered by police when they arrived on the scene last night, believing it was an intruder," read the post.

One of the gym owners, Graham Curson has since confirmed that the post had been made as a joke as a way of laughing with the situation.

"We would like to apologise again for being closed today due to the break in here last night," read the gym's Facebook post from Sunday (October 29).

"We have spent the morning assessing the damage and completing a thorough cleanup.

"We are looking forward to looking over CCTV footage and assisting the police with their inquiries."

Sergeant Marcus Bloomfield, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Officers were called to Arena Health and Fitness Gym, North Gate, Newark, at around 11pm on Saturday (October 28), following reports of a break-in.

“After attending the scene, officers searched the premises and found that nothing had been taken.

“No tasers were deployed at any point by police while attending this incident.

“Inquiries are still ongoing to establish who might have been responsible, so we’d ask anyone with any information to call the police on 101, quoting incident 714 of 28 October 2023.

“Information can also be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

A further post from the gym's Facebook page yesterday (Monday, October 30) said: "The mannequins (have) recovered from their ordeal."