{"id":6523,"date":"2011-02-23T23:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T07:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=6523"},"modified":"2011-02-23T23:00:31","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T07:00:31","slug":"britains-own-superhero-is-unmasked-as-a-fiat-punto-driver-who-takes-his-washing-home-to-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/02\/23\/britains-own-superhero-is-unmasked-as-a-fiat-punto-driver-who-takes-his-washing-home-to-mum\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain's own superhero is unmasked… as a Fiat Punto driver who takes his washing home to mum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted:http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1359093\/Birmingham-superhero-Britains-Kick-Ass-banker-The-Statesman-fights-crime.html<\/a>
\nBy Rob Cooper<\/a>
\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Nick Obank<\/p><\/div>
\nA superhero who works as a banker by day and fights crime on the streets as ‘The Statesman’ at night has been unmasked as a 26-year-old Fiat Punto driver who takes his washing home to his mother.
\nScott Cooke is a Santander worker who claims he has stopped a break in and helped arrest a drug dealer.
\nHis mother Dawn, 47, admitted she had no idea her 16 stone son was dressing up as a superhero at night and going out on the streets.
\nShe thought Scott, who takes his washing home to her, might have been out drinking.
\nAnd his girlfriend Keri Whip, 26, was also oblivious to the superhero fanatic’s late night antics.
\nDressed in a Union Flag T-shirt with a black Zorro-style mask covering his eyes ‘The Statesman’ is out four nights each week – and had been telling his partner he was playing poker.
\nHe follows in the footsteps of the hit film Kick Ass, in which a teenage geek dresses as a superhero but ends up way over his head.
\nHis mother, from Redditch, Worcestershire, told The Sun: ‘My only fear is that Scott might get knocked about by troublemakers. I know he got beaten by drug dealers a few months ago but he didn’t say a lot about it.
\n‘He was probably in his costume at the time. Walking a city centre dressed like that takes guts. There’s an awful lot that boy has to sit down and tell me.
\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Nick Obank<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Nick Obank<\/p><\/div>
\nHe can look after himself but he’s a big softie to me.’
\nThe former soldier in the Territorial Army lives in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, with his girlfriend Keri who he has been dating for ten years.
\nScott has swapped cutting-edge gadgets for a first aid kit, a torch to startle burglars and a notepad for writing down important information. A cheap mobile phone in case he needs to call support of the police completes his arsenal.
\nLast month, it emerged Phoenix Jones from the U.S. had been dubbed the real-life Kick Ass after appointing himself as masked guardian of a Seattle suburb.
\nBefore his identity was revealed, Scott said: ‘I work for a large bank dealing with savings and investments. All day I look at numbers and percentages and work out how to make people richer.
\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Nick Obank<\/p><\/div>
\n‘It’s not a popular occupation but I like to think I make up for this by going out at night and trying to do something to help everybody.’
\nHe claims he helped Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to capture a drug dealer – and sometimes teams up with three other superheroes to work together.
\nHe added: ‘We were patrolling London together at 3am one night and heard a commotion. We saw a huge guy running across Trafalgar Square away from two PCSOs.
\n‘They were shouting at him but he wasn’t going to stop so we threw off our overcoats and chased him. We caught up with him and pinned him down until the officers arrived.
\n‘They told us he had jumped bail and they had seen him throwing away packets of drugs as he ran from them.
\n‘That was the first time what I do really felt justified. The police wagon turned up and took him away and it felt good. The PCSOs thought it was great. They loved it.’
\nExplaining his superhero name, he said: ‘A Statesman is an ambassador, a diplomat and somebody who delivers a message. Something that’s meaningful and positive, and that’s something I feel that represents what I do.
\n‘I want to do something that’s positive for the country. I hope some people will look at me and want to do it themselves. If it’s just one person then it’s a success. As long as I’m achieving anything, I will keep doing this.’
\nWest Midlands Police refused to comment.
\nRead more: http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1359772\/Birmingham-superhero-Scott-Cooke-unmasked-Fiat-Punto-driver.html#ixzz1ErCwfMPb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statesman identity revealed by British Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[913,1417,2041,2199,2502,2631,2757,2779,2919],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}