Garb Prompts Brit Security Alert

Here's an idea for what not to wear to a costume party.

A drunken British soldier, a 10-year veteran of Britain's Coldstream Guards Regiment, set off a security alert when he left a regimental costume party, dressed as a terrorist, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Holt. He'd worn a turban and a false-beard, and had wires and candles stuffed into his combat jacket, to look like explosives.

A member of the public spotted him walking home along a country road near the Aldershot army base in southern England, and called police. Fifteen squad cars, with armed officers and dog handlers, scrambled to the scene.

He spent a night in jail, and was fined about 150 dollars for public disorder. There will also be an army inquiry.

A spokesman for the Aldershot army base said the soldier was just coping with the stress of the job.

"That's perfectly fair. What's not correct is spreading alarm by walking about like that on the public road," he told the BBC.

A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said the civil punishment was as light as it was because "there wasn't anything behind his actions. He was just a drunk soldier."

The party was to celebrate the regiment's role in the Battle of Waterloo, back in 1815.

The Constabulary spokesman said the regiment was embarrassed by the incident.