Most people’s natural instinct would be that walking the street in a ski mask with a rifle is not a great idea, but apparently a Sydney band thought it would be just fine.
A man was spotted doing that exact thing in Marrickville on Friday and unsurprisingly caused a panic so large that the Riot Squad were called to Faversham Street, home to hip-hop label Elefant Traks.
It turned out there was nothing to worry about because the man was part of a music video. Still, according to Fairfax, the gun wasn’t authorised and the men involved weren’t allowed to be using it in public.
Given recent events including the Orlando mass shooting and the murder of two stars of The Voice, you’d think they would’ve considered the effect of a masked man wielding a gun in public but apparently not.
Police charged two men aged 41 and 38 with possessing an unregistered firearm in a public place without authorisation.
The man was spotted by Caitlin McGregor, a publicist for Elefant Traks, who didn’t see the film crew, just a man coming towards their building with a gun.
“My instant thought was, ‘He’s heading somewhere to kill people,'” she told Fairfax.
“Especially with the Orlando shooting happening, something that I was extremely traumatised by, it was really scary.”
She ran into a warehouse behind their office and hid, finding that all her work friends were out to lunch. Herself and several others had called the police and they arrived quickly, taking the men to Newtown Police Station.
“I don’t ever want to feel like that again,” McGregor said.
“The least they could have done was just tell people in the area they were going to shoot a video clip.”
Urthboy, who owns the label, tweeted about the incident writing, “Just recd sms from female work colleague saying there’s a guy in our car park w a rifle in a ski-mask! After initial panic, and 5 cop cars.”
“Turns out it’s a fucking band shooting a video clip and the guy with the fake rifle wondering off set scaring the crap outta anyone nearby.”
He further said the rifle was real.
The two men were granted conditional bail and will appear in court on 12th July.
Just recd sms from female work colleague saying there's a guy in our car park w a rifle in a ski-mask! After initial panic, and 5 cop cars..
— Urthboy (@urthboy) June 17, 2016
Turns out it's a fucking band shooting a video clip and the guy with the fake rifle wondering off set scaring the crap outta anyone nearby
— Urthboy (@urthboy) June 17, 2016
except just discovered the rifle was real smh
— Urthboy (@urthboy) June 17, 2016
