Call Of Duty Mannequin Mistaken For Sniper Leads To LAPD Standoff

[Initech]

Late last night the offices of Los Angeles-based independent game studio Robotoki were stormed by the Los Angeles Police Department after a curious designer pressed the building's "panic" button, studio founder Robert Bowling told Polygon.

The 911 response ended in a tense showdown with a life-sized statue of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Simon "Ghost" Riley, which the police mistook for a gunman.

Earlier today reports circulated that the studio had been the victim of a "swatting" prank, in which a third party tricks law enforcement authorities or emergency services by providing details of a made-up threat, triggering an emergency response dispatch to the target of the prank. Swatting pranks are not limited to 911 calls; swatters can spoof a victim's phone number, obtain and use a victim's personal information or hack phone and computer systems.

Bowling clarified that it wasn't a prank, but the mischievousness of an unnamed designer that brought the LAPD to his door.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/31/4383220/robert-bowlings-robotoki-invaded-by-lapd-after-curious-designer

[hootinholler]

1. And then they played a round of video games.

I guess cops get breaks too. I'm surprised they didn't taze or shoot Ghost.