Police storm Toronto office for LEGO gun

Police storm Toronto office for LEGO gun

www.theglobeandmail.com

Shortly before 6 p.m., Jeremy Bell, a designer and creative director at digital marketing company Teehan+Lax, was putting the final plastic bricks on a fake semi-automatic pistol in his office on Richmond Street, near Spadina Avenue.

He showed the finished creation to one of his co-workers, who promptly broke it, then put the parts away in a box.
...
An hour later, Mr. Bell said he heard a scream from one of his co-workers in the hall. When he went to look, he found members of Toronto police's emergency task force storming the building.

“These guys were yelling at me with their assa

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
torontoist.com
toronto.ctv.ca

The police raid was sparked by some voyer staring into the guys office from across the street.

As additional links I placed one to the LEGO gun and one to the photo that caused the raid.

I once lived in a city that passed some idiotic firearm laws. One being should anyone see an "illegal" firearm to call the 'gun hotline.' Now, I dont know what an "illegal" firearm looks like. I'm guessing no different from a legal firearm. At the time all of my neighbors were hoplophobic morons and kept trying to get some info from the police there as to whether or not I should be worried about losing my freedom and property if some idiot sees me cleaning one at my table through a window and calls the gun hotline.

I'm guess, based on this police raid, that I certainly could have expected tear gas and battering rams.


www.theglobeandmail.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow. I'd hate to know what would have happened if he had brought a Nerf gun to work.

I'll be sure to alert my six year old that he should be veerrry careful with his
Legos.

I love this comment quote from the link:

I'd be more worried about the psycho neighbor who spends his day spying on the office next door.

Exactly. The world is out of control.

[edit on 4/12/2009 by kosmicjack]

designer and creative director at digital marketing company Teehan+Lax.

How much you want to bet that Mr Bells’ company handles the marketing for “Brickgun”?
Brickgun
Yeah, a neighbor accidentally saw this, and called the police, uhm… sure…

[edit on 12/4/2009 by defcon5]

reply to post by defcon5


Yeah, certainly could be the case.

If this is the same company their client list is here: client list.

At least a partial client list.

And BrickGun's website credits "Onyx Malagraphixia."

Doesnt mean there isnt a connection though.

[edit on 4-12-2009 by thisguyrighthere]

reply to post by defcon5


Excellent observation!

I'm just jaded enough by endless marketing to be convinced.

Police State + Paranoia = wrongful and abusive/violent arrests.

When will this end? Must I build a rocket and head somewhere else to make it stop?

after that incident, i would place a large telescope looking out at the buildings next to mine. Maybe that would help the would-be spy decide to look away next time.

At least no one was tasered in this incident.

So according to the guy who actually noticed the gun in an adjacent building he called the police?
Did he notice how long it took him to assemble this 'gun' or did he simply see the finished result?
Having fired and dismantled firearms myself I think I can say it would take a hell of a lot longer to assemble a lego gun as to a real firearm.

If this voyeur watched this building and saw the guy in question assembling all I can say is " What a Knob".

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


If you look at the onyx site, it appears to almost be a private site opposed to a full scale company, with its only contact information being [email protected]: onyx
It could be a side project by either Mr Bells or one of his co-workers, or it could be a kind of low end division of the larger company Teehan+Lax. Both companies obviously deal with web based advertising though, which is suspicious IMHO.

You cannot get any better advertising then to get a story like this that will travel the globe on international news as a humorous sideline. It would cost a fortune to buy that kind of ad time.

If you think about it, it was also kind of convenient that the gun was broken and put back in the box BEFORE the police team arrived.

[edit on 12/4/2009 by defcon5]

reply to post by DataWraith


Thats what paranoia does to people mate, makes them see things that aren't there.

Never underestimate the power of anxiety and stress on the human brain.

The idiot who made this call should be arrested for wasting police time.

are lego guns illegal too? we cant even have toy guns

Originally posted by Kryties
Police State + Paranoia = wrongful and abusive/violent arrests.

When will this end? Must I build a rocket and head somewhere else to make it stop?

Autoimmunity syndrome.

Self devouring auto-destructive protocol-dependent paranoid intoxicated etc. society. What can you expect?

I can see how it all ends. Go far, far away if you can...

That's really good advertising for that company

I know I am now aware of that product and I want one!

Can anyone imagine the fallout if this poor guy was assembling a Rubber Band Gun? Those actually fire a projectile that could cause a serious welt!!

The dreaded Chicago Typewriter. Yikes!!



Glad I don't live in Canada.

oh come on people i have seen the gun and from a distance i does look real . isn,t it better for the police to respond than have some lunatic running around with a real one .

it seems that the police come in for a lot of stick . damned when they do and damned when they don,t

Canadians aren't nearly as familiar with guns as Americans are. I can easily see how someone looking out their window could mistake it for a real gun. I mean really, how many people play with lego in their office? IMO it would have been highly irrisponsible for the guy to not have called the police. I wouldn't want to be the guy who could have prevented a tragedy but chose not to.

Originally posted by Syphon
I wouldn't want to be the guy who could have prevented a tragedy but chose not to.

One could use the same rationale to call the cops upon seeing a black man walking down the street in their white neighborhood.

The cause in question being an inanimate object rather than a human being doesnt make ignorance and fear 'right.' Nor is peeping into other peoples windows exactly 'right' either.

The difference in value of said justification of course may be in local laws. It is not illegal for a black man to be walking down the street even in an uppity white neighborhood. Nor is it illegal here to be in possession of a handgun. Perhaps there it is illegal to be a black man walking down the street? By which I mean in possession of a handgun.

Also, worth mentioning is that here it is illegal to go around peeping into other peoples windows. Though that doesnt seem to be worth much given the case of the gentleman brewing coffee in his own being charged with indecent exposure.

[edit on 4-12-2009 by thisguyrighthere]

If I saw you peeping into other people's houses, I'd call the police (assuming that the police are not lunatics with guns). Don't worry, anyone can/will be busted according to the present state of mind and mistrust.