A WOMAN walking her dog in a country park in Devon, takes home a stick her dog has been playing with during their walk.

But she is spotted by the park ranger, her vehicle's registration is taken and within a short time the police are at her husband's place of work demanding to know who had been driving the car because a criminal offence had been committed -- a twig had been stolen from the countryside.

The stick had to be returned to the park or charges would have been pressed.

In Blackburn, a young woman walking her dog in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon, is viciously attacked and raped in a local country park. More than four years later, the local police are still looking for the offender.

So, ladies, if you are out walking alone in the town's parks and woodland areas and begin to feel vulnerable, to ensure park ranger surveillance and prompt police attention, which for other misdemeanours would be too trivial and costly to attend, investigate and solve, for safety's sake, pick up a stick.

DAVID FORTUNE, Queens Road, Blackburn.