His surreal predicament continued as the armed officers checked the black stick did not pose a threat - before revealing a member of public had mistaken it for a shotgun. After realising the error, the police warned Mr Berry not to carry the stick in an 'inappropriate' fashion before sending him on his way.
Mr Berry said: 'It was very scary at the time. I just froze to the spot and was a bit shaken afterwards but I can see the funny side now. I am just grateful that the police were not trigger-happy and prepared to shoot first and ask questions later. When I came out of the shop and saw them with their machine guns I thought, "What the hell is going on?" I never imagined it was anything to do with me. Then they asked me to stop. Their exact words were, "Can you come here for a moment please?".
After hearing why he had been stopped, Mr Berry said: 'I told them that it was just an extendable walking stick. It was black and I was carrying it horizontally like an umbrella but even so, it was clearly not a gun. I was warned not to carry the stick like that again in case it gave people the impression that it was a gun.'
4 comments:
So conversley, if you carry a gun like a walking stick then no one will notice?
The police made an error, and after realising this they didn't apologize or anything like that, but just warned the wrongly accused to avoid doing what he had been doing, which had not been wrong or illegal in the first place. I am irritated.
Why carry around a walking stick instead of using it as a walking stick?
It is a gentlemanly fashion statement.
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