Salmon Arm shoppers call cops on dad with toy gun

SALMON ARM – A Salmon Arm father won’t be charged after the gun he was reported “waving around” in public turned out to be a toy.  

RCMP say uiformed and plain clothes officers responded to a local mall for a report of an armed man in the parking lot Aug. 16.

A member of the public was able to get the vehicle licence plate and police stopped him on 30th Street NE, according to an RCMP media release.

“The male had merely been playing with children in the vehicle and he never posed any danger to himself, the children or the general public at any time,” Staff Sgt. Scott West says in the release. “The perception of the persons who called in the complaint was quite different due to the realistic nature of the toy guns.”

“The male, who is in his 30s and a resident of Salmon Arm, was later released without charge once investigators determined the firearms were very realistic replica toy firearms,” West says.

West says because replica and toy firearms are so realistic police react to unknown situations involving them and treat them as real until it can be proven otherwise.

He asks peple to leave the realistic looking or replica firearms at home.

The release does not say what time the incident occurred. 

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