SWAT Team Busts Guy For Assembling LEGO Gun
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.
The company Bell ordered the LEGO gun from tweeted on Friday, "Due to the overwhelming number of orders from recent press and the holiday rush, all orders from today on will be delayed 2-3 extra weeks."
Follow us on Twitter for more tech news and exclusive updates here.
- Amazon: We're Not Opening Physical Stores
- A Headless Luke Wilson Disses Verizon in New Ad
- Palm Sued Over PDF Viewer in the Pre
- FCC Probes Verizon's Higher Early Termination Fees
- Verizon: iPhone is Digitally Clueless Beauty Queen
- Nintendo DS Flash Cards are Legal Says Judge
- Go Retro: Dragon's Lair Confirmed for iPhone
- Sony's PSPgo May Get External UMD Reader
- Report: Teen Internet Addicts Likely to Self-Harm
- Leaked File Reveals Yahoo's Spy Service
- Russia 1st to Get LG's Borderless LCD HDTV
- Sony's PlayStation Turns 15
- Storm8: We're Not Collecting Private iPhone Data
- N64 Mini is Tiny, Portable Nintendo 64
- Time Warner Wants Subscribers to Fight Networks
- See the N64 Emulator for iPhone 3GS in Action
- Google Sues Over Work-At-Home Schemes
- LG Set to Release 3D LCDs with Full HD
- Latest Miscellaneous News
- 07/28 – How To Restore Your Beige Retro Hardware
- 07/21 – Winners of the Tom's Guide Father's Day Contest
- 07/02 – Iron Man Biker Suit Finally Out and for Sale
- 06/29 – $1000 Keyboard Features A Screen on Every Key
- 06/07 – Minimalist Digital Watch is a 4cm Square
- All Miscellaneous news
EPIC Win!
Wish I could get one of these!
my question why was someone watching him from across the street, and for that matter taking pictures of him?
to be fair it does look a bit glock-ish
you get a SWAT raining down your ass for one handgun?
i would understand if he was building maybe a rail cannon but handgun isn't worth all that trouble....
so who gets billed for this? hope the guy who called in gets bill for calling SWAT for one lousy "handgun"....
[citation]The company Bell ordered the LEGO gun from tweeted on Friday, "Due to the overwhelming number of orders from recent press and the holiday rush, all orders from today on will be delayed 2-3 extra weeks."[/citation]
Media stunt?
What kind of job allows you to build lego guns and play COD?
Some people have too much spare time on their hands. So what if the gun had been real, who's to say he didn't have a licence?
Really?
6 swat offciers for a single handgun?
Excessive much?
They'd likely send a dozen or more at me though, assembling a LEGO AK47, LEGO RPG, and a LEGO bomb belt with trigger. =D
So what kind of job's allow you to play with legos, and COD?
What kind of job allows you to build lego guns and play COD?
Call centres which don't get many calls?
Although it doesn't look like one from the healthy size of his screen.
Design studios are usually quite relaxed places.
What kind of job allows you to build lego guns and play COD?
I think it was after hours.
The "Nancy Boy" goes with the Glock, when there was a Desert Eagle available? The Lego .50 caliber D.E. is a Man's gun, not a little sissy gun like the Glock. Seriously, I didn't catch what job he has that allows him to play with his Lego kits, and let his co-workers play MW2? I want this job.
An example of truth stranger than fiction.
What was the guy across the street doing spying on lego man for anyway. Industrial espionage maybe or just a freak who gets kicks by watching others through windows? I would be looking into that.
i'd walk across the street and beat the shit out of the idiot spying on me and ruining my day.
Excessive? Hell no! A man in an OFFICE BUILDING holding what appears to be a firearm. Most people don't have spare firearms laying around the OFFICE. So it is very suspect and law enforcement did everything they should have done.
The "Nancy Boy" goes with the Glock, when there was a Desert Eagle available? The Lego .50 caliber D.E. is a Man's gun, not a little sissy gun like the Glock. Seriously, I didn't catch what job he has that allows him to play with his Lego kits, and let his co-workers play MW2? I want this job.
D.E. are for men with tiny penuseses. Real men choose function over shiny nickel-plated metal and bullets too big to fire effectively at anything other than immobile objects like buildings.
And I agree SWAT had no business entering the premises because someone might have had a gun they might also have a legal permit to posses. Unless the neighbor knew it was an office building and thought the guy might be planning an "early retirement" party, I'm not sure what danger could have existed in the first place.
Hero syndrome once again...if you really have no idea of whats going on then you prob should keep your business yo yourself and spare everyone the drama..this is NOT tv.
If some guy in your office building potentially has a handgun, would you want just a couple regular badges trying to take him down or a whole SWAT team? I'll go with SWAT any day.
It's illegal in Canada to have a gun that can be fired using only one hand. This means that handguns are illegal in Canada, except in the hands of cops and military. That's why SWAT came in to search.
At first I thought this was in America...Was going to say wtf we have the right to bare arms. I guess Canada has some messed up guns laws.Jesus even if its real its just one handgun.
D.E. are for men with tiny penuseses. Real men choose function over shiny nickel-plated metal and bullets too big to fire effectively at anything other than immobile objects like buildings.And I agree SWAT had no business entering the premises because someone might have had a gun they might also have a legal permit to posses. Unless the neighbor knew it was an office building and thought the guy might be planning an "early retirement" party, I'm not sure what danger could have existed in the first place.
I own a non-Lego fabricated Glock myself,and I agree it is a fine hand gun.
This just in... A local daycare has been contained. Witnesses report that there were small adults building what appeared to be " potentially deadly weapons and devices"
more at 11
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/AT-T-L [...] -5273.html
I'd print out a sheet of paper with colourful language telling the guy across the street what he can go do, tape it to the window, and pull the blinds down. What an ass hole.
The douche that called it in from across the street was obviously not doing their job, and was wasting time staring out the window. They should be fired for lack of productivity.
I'm not at working writing this ;-)
His Tweet on November 6th.
Ironic?
you get a SWAT raining down your ass for one handgun?i would understand if he was building maybe a rail cannon but handgun isn't worth all that trouble....so who gets billed for this? hope the guy who called in gets bill for calling SWAT for one lousy "handgun"....
It's Canada, it's rare to see even an ancient collector's pistol.
I agree with several other posters in their responses.
If this was at my workplace, then I would want the enforcement officers to go in force.. just in case. In this day when all these workplace shootings take place, I would hate to think the police would do otherwise.
If this story read " Man in office building is seen with gun, one beat cop goes to investigate and man shoots cop and 12 co-workers" Then everyone knocking the response in this instance would be like "Where were the cops.. they only send one cop in on a armed person in the middle of a work place?"
I would rather have them over react and find it was nothing, then under react and have a very bad outcome.
The guy who saw the handgun did exactly what he should have done. Called it in. The police did exactly what they should have done. Responded as if a worker was going to go on a rampage killing several coworkers using a handgun. This is how it should always happen especially considering workers can and sometimes do "go postal".