Woman Calls Police After Mistaking Patio Umbrella For Suicidal Person

A woman in New York has been praised by police for alerting them to a possible suicide attempt after she mistook a closed umbrella for a person wearing a "Handmaid's Tale" costume. Casey McCormick tweeted she thought she saw “a woman dressed as a handmaid about to jump from a building” and called 911.

The sighting turned out to be a table umbrella which, from a distance, looked much like a handmaid from the seminal Margaret Atwood novel "The Handmaid’s Tale".

Today I thought I saw a woman dressed as a handmaid about to jump from a building. I called 911. pic.twitter.com/EIrz6wR0bz
— Casey McCormick (@itsmeCaseyMc) May 21, 2019

The New York Police Department’s news account made it clear on Twitter that McCormick had done the right thing in alerting the authorities.

“Blessed be the umbrella. Thank you Casey and the @POPSUGAR team for alerting us to this crime, glad we could save the day,” they tweeted. “Jokes aside, if you’re ever hesitant about calling 911 – don’t be! We take all calls seriously, and worse case we get to go home with a great story.”

Blessed be the umbrella. Thank you Casey and the @POPSUGAR team for alerting us to this crime, glad we could save the day.
Jokes aside, if you’re ever hesitant about calling 911 – don’t be! We take all calls seriously, and worse case we get to go home with a great story. https://t.co/PJLNw9Gx0P
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 21, 2019

“Better safe than sorry!” one Twitter user replied.