Bradford Batman revealed to be Chinese takeaway driver

Batman hands in wanted man

5 March 2013

A mystery man who walked into a police station dressed as Batman to hand over an alleged criminal has revealed himself as a Chinese takeaway delivery man.

Stan Warby, 39, reportedly said he had been at a football match dressed as the superhero when his friend called him asking for help in handing himself in to officers.

He accompanied Danny Frayne to Bradford police station as a favour, after returning from Bradford City's cup final clash against Swansea at London's Wembley Stadium on February 25.

Mr Warby was dressed head to toe as the comic book hero when he anonymously took his 27-year-old friend at Trafalgar House police station in the early hours of the morning.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "It was a joke at the end of the day, and Danny wanted to go to the police station.

"I had spoken to Danny during the week and tried to knock some sense into him.

"It was getting on my nerves having police round all the time asking for him or his whereabouts.

"Danny's a good friend of mine and I've known him for 15 years or so. Who knows if I'll be doing some more crime-fighting in the future?"

He added that he had attracted some "strange looks".

Police in West Yorkshire said the mystery caped crusader told them: "I've caught this one for you."

Officers added that he "then promptly vanished into the night to fight crime and the fear of crime in Bradford".

Officers had not known the identity of the man posing as the camp 1960s incarnation of the famous DC Comics character, rather than the dark, black figure familiar to fans of the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan film versions.

Frayne had been wanted in connection with a number of alleged offences.

He was later charged with handling stolen goods and fraud-related offences, and will appear before magistrates on Friday.

The mystery was announced by the neighbourhood police team for the Buttershaw area of Bradford on their Facebook page.

They said: "Last week we had a very strange occurrence at the police station when a male wanted for an offence on our area was 'escorted' into our helpdesk at Trafalgar House by Batman.

"Batman came into the helpdesk, stated to the staff 'I've caught this one for you' and then promptly vanished into the night to fight crime and the fear of crime in Bradford.

"The whole bizarre incident was captured on CCTV."

The officers added: "This post is meant as a bit of a light-hearted news."

A later post from the officers in Buttershaw said "Inspector Alan Rhees-Cooper said that officers had made diligent inquiries in the local community to locate this individual.

"This often leads to members of the community assisting the police or to the individual themselves voluntarily attending the police station to speak to the police."

One of the Police Community Support Officers said in another post that they had been looking for the man but "Ultimately Batman beat us to the punch... Until next time, Batman, until next time!!!"