Students filming fake robbery almost get in real police shootout

Students filming a fake robbery looked a little too real to police, and their movie project almost turned into an actual shootout.

It all started, local station CBS2 reports, when passerby Linda Bergslien thought she was witnessing a robbery at Classic Coffee in Glendora, Calif., where the filming was taking place Thursday morning.

She immediately called 911.

“They had masks on, and the one had a gun in his hand, and it was clear they were ready to enter the building,” she told CBS2.

A sergeant and two officers arrived and they thought it was the real thing, too. They shouted for the students to drop their weapons and get down on the ground, but one student froze and didn’t drop his (toy) gun.

Capt. Tim Staab of the Glendora Police Department told CBS2 that one of the officers got ready to shoot just as his partner was able to take the gun from the student.

“When he didn’t drop the gun, one of the officers reached out and pulled the gun out of his hand,” Staab said.

Then one of the officers noticed a camera.

“You’re shooting a short film?” an officer is heard saying. “In a store with a man with a gun?”

Glendora police said the students had not obtained a permit to film, so the shoot was news to them.

“It was extremely reckless,” Staab says, “and thank goodness our officers responded in the right way.”