The image shows a man with a comically large mouth, with comparisons now being drawn to The Cheshire Cat.
'We've issued an efit for a suspect in a distraction burglary in Stratford,' Warwickshire Police posted to Twitter.
With many people believing the strange image was a belated April Fool's joke, the post was quickly flooded with tongue-in-cheek responses.
The post attracted such a response that Warwickshire Police were forced to confirm that the efit was, in fact, not a joke and that a criminal was on the loose.
'We can confirm that this is real and that we anticipated the attention! But jokes aside, it was created from a description provided and it's serious as a woman was victim of a horrible crime,' their post read.
'Hopefully the attention will mean we identify the offender/bring him to justice quicker.'
