[link to www.globaltoronto.com] Case of public spying on people and turning them in... 1984 anyone ?????It turns out assembling a LEGO handgun in your office while your colleagues play Modern Warfare 2 can actually cause quite a bit of trouble.
Last Wednesday, a Toronto designer was arrested at his office by a SWAT team that was responding to a report from a man in a neighboring apartment block. The concerned citizen called the police when he spied Jeremy Bell assembling a handgun in his office.
Writing in his blog, Jeremy says he doesn't really have a reason for buying a kit to build a replica gun out of LEGO. "It doesn’t do much (other than clearly look real), but I’ve always been a fan of LEGO so I decided to pick it up." Bell continues on to say that he assembled the gun before putting it back in the box. "I literally assembled it, handed it to a co-worker (who promptly broke it) and then put it back in the box."
Bell and his coworkers were playing Modern Warfare 2 when they heard "intense yelling" in the hallway. When Bell heard his name, he went to see what was happening. As soon as he opened the door, there was a gun and a flashlight in his face. "With my hands up, I had to lift my shirt and slowly spin around. Once they confirmed I wasn’t packing any LEGO heat, I walked backwards towards them, was then cuffed, pulled into the stairwell and thrown against the wall," writes Bell.
"I was surrounded by about six SWAT guys armed with shotguns and assault rifles. … Apparently I had been reported with a gun." Jeremy then explained to the police officers that his weapon was actually plastic, "Guys, seriously? It’s Lego. It’s in a box—in pieces I might add—by my desk at the front.”
Two SWAT members kept Jeremy pressed up against the wall while the rest went to check it out. “We found it … it’s Lego,” came the response.
Jeremy later discovered that someone in the building across the street had seen him with the gun, taken photos and called the police. Photo below, via Geekologie.
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