Drunk thought binbag in sitting room was a wolf

Drunken Lawrence Eaton, 50, armed himself with a knife and fled his house after seeing what appeared to him to be a wild animal crouched in the corner of his room.

The ex-lorry driver ran to a phone box and begged for police to come to help during a babbled emergency call.

Police raced to the scene with their own trained dogs ready to investigate the wolf report and came across Eaton still in the street carrying a kitchen knife.

But on searching his house they found only a black binbag and quickly realised that Eaton had got confused in his drunken state.

Instead, they charged him with possession of a knife after spotting him carrying the eight-inch blade in Holyrood Road, near his Dumbiedykes home.

Yesterday, he was fined 150 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for having the knife in the street.

Sheriff Noel McPartlin said: "This happened because of your own drinking and the court has to take possession of a knife seriously."

The court heard that Eaton suffered from alcohol problems and had psychological difficulties at the time of the incident in September last year.

His solicitor Iain Tweedie said: "He had the knife because he believed there was a wild animal in his house and there was no intention to use it against anyone in the street."

Eaton, of Viewcraig Street, hopes to regain his haulage licence so he can resume his career as a long-distance lorry driver later this year.