Police pounced on man armed with LEGO gun

Thu Dec. 03 2009 2:24:42 PM

A Toronto man got a first-hand look at how seriously police take potential firearm calls when a tactical team showed up at his office as he was playing with a Lego gun.

Const. Tony Vella of the Toronto Police Service told ctvtoronto.ca that someone in the vicinity of Richmond Street west of Spadina Avenue looked out his window late Wednesday afternoon and saw what he thought was a man assembling a firearm.

That person contacted police.

“Police arrive on scene … They do observe the man with the gun,” he said.

At that point, police moved in to take the man down.

“It turned out it was a toy gun, made out of Lego parts,” Vella said.

No charges resulted from the incident, he said, adding tactical officers were involved in the operation along with uniformed police.

“We have to take all the gun calls seriously because we don’t know what we’re getting involved in,” Vella said. “There’s the potential for public risk as well as the risk to the officers’ safety.”