SWAT Team Mistakes Lara Croft for Crazed Gunman
SWAT Team Mistakes Lara Croft for Crazed Gunman
May 26, 2008
A UK man was arrested recently after officers from the Greater Manchester Police Department mistook a life-size Lara Croft figure for an armed man.
As reported by the Daily Mail, David Williams, 42, owns a computer shop and received the statue of the Tomb Raider heroine as a promotional item. Deciding to sell it on Ebay, he took Lara home.
Coincidentally, he called police around midnight to report some harassing phone calls. When officers arrived, Williams didn't answer the door. Peering in the window, the officers caught the silhouette of Lara holding a pistol. They cordoned off the street, burst through the back door of the home and held Williams at gunpoint. Of the incident, Williams said:
It would have been laughable if it hadn't been so terrifying. One of the police held a gun and yelled, 'Where's the weapon, where's the weapon?'
I didn't have a clue what was going on, I assumed they'd got the wrong house. I couldn't believe it when I realised they'd mistaken a Lara Croft dummy for someone with a gun.
For his part, Williams was arrested, held for 13 hours, and charged with a firearms offense. The newspaper account doesn't explain whether the charge stemmed from Lara's fake gun or something else the police may have found in the home. The Lara Croft figure was confiscated as evidence.
Williams is considering a lawsuit.
GP: Perhaps Manchester's high level of recent violence has made police edgy. GamePolitics readers will no doubt recall last year's controversy over the depiction of Manchester Cathedral as a level in PlayStation 3 first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man.
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Posted 02/09/10 at 03:51pm
DarkSaber: I think he just goes round the internet copy+pasting the same bollocks to get attention.
DarkSaber: I think he just goes round the internet copy+pasting the same bollocks to get attention.
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:41pm
Valdearg: @DS: I have to admit, I chuckled when I saw the 4 Feb 2010 on that post.. >.<
Valdearg: @DS: I have to admit, I chuckled when I saw the 4 Feb 2010 on that post.. >.<
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:31pm
DarkSaber: Hm, Bioshock. Not that Zippy likes to beat the dead horse by ranting about it for TWO $&%£ING YEARS!
DarkSaber: Hm, Bioshock. Not that Zippy likes to beat the dead horse by ranting about it for TWO $&%£ING YEARS!
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:30pm
DarkSaber: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.173063-Bioshock-yet-another-zippy-rant
DarkSaber: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.173063-Bioshock-yet-another-zippy-rant
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:20pm
DarkSaber: Although, unsurprisingly, he's just being called an idiot alot and criticised for being as illegible as always.
DarkSaber: Although, unsurprisingly, he's just being called an idiot alot and criticised for being as illegible as always.
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:18pm
DarkSaber: Oh good lord, I just found Zippy on The Escapist.
DarkSaber: Oh good lord, I just found Zippy on The Escapist.
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:14pm
Valdearg: IE: Male body/Female Mind or Female Body/Male Mind.
Valdearg: IE: Male body/Female Mind or Female Body/Male Mind.
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:13pm
Valdearg: @Zip: TG == Transgendered/Transsexual.
Valdearg: @Zip: TG == Transgendered/Transsexual.
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:09pm
DarkSaber: Forget it Zippy, it's an abbreviation of a big word and so would be wasted on you
DarkSaber: Forget it Zippy, it's an abbreviation of a big word and so would be wasted on you
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:07pm
ZippyDSMlee: Vlag:....TG?
ZippyDSMlee: Vlag:....TG?
Posted 02/09/10 at 03:02pm
Valdearg: @DS: Im sure that's what they'd do if it wasn't legal to just tell Gays/TG's to "Screw off," just because they're who they are.
Valdearg: @DS: Im sure that's what they'd do if it wasn't legal to just tell Gays/TG's to "Screw off," just because they're who they are.
Posted 02/09/10 at 02:50pm
DarkSaber: Whoever told him/her/it that is dumb. They should have done like most companies and made-up some bullshit, yet legal, reason for it not getting the job.
DarkSaber: Whoever told him/her/it that is dumb. They should have done like most companies and made-up some bullshit, yet legal, reason for it not getting the job.
Posted 02/09/10 at 01:16pm
Andrew Eisen: Shouldn't be. Spirit of anti-discrimination laws would seem to include sexual orientation (and eye color). Plus there's always equal protection and such. Never know until you try.
Andrew Eisen: Shouldn't be. Spirit of anti-discrimination laws would seem to include sexual orientation (and eye color). Plus there's always equal protection and such. Never know until you try.
Posted 02/09/10 at 01:10pm
Andrew Eisen: Should have sued (unless that wasn't an option given her financial situation or something). Might have won.
Andrew Eisen: Should have sued (unless that wasn't an option given her financial situation or something). Might have won.
Posted 02/09/10 at 01:00pm
Valdearg: Story about a Male to Female TG who was expressly told she wouldn't be given a job because she was TG. Its not the main point of the story, but explicit, perfectly legal discrimination like this exists.
Valdearg: Story about a Male to Female TG who was expressly told she wouldn't be given a job because she was TG. Its not the main point of the story, but explicit, perfectly legal discrimination like this exists.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:53pm
Valdearg: Lol, I don't know. It may very well be legal to do so. Though that might able to fall under the "race" restriction, depending on how that point is argued.
Valdearg: Lol, I don't know. It may very well be legal to do so. Though that might able to fall under the "race" restriction, depending on how that point is argued.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:51pm
Valdearg: I don't think they do have any legal recourse. I'll have to dig around, but I seriously believe that if the law doesn't specifically mention Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, they can still be discriminated against in those 29 states.
Valdearg: I don't think they do have any legal recourse. I'll have to dig around, but I seriously believe that if the law doesn't specifically mention Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, they can still be discriminated against in those 29 states.
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
A sad intictment of our nations policing at the moment.
Can I just point out however, they aren't SWAT, they're Firearms Officers. Please don't mistake our well trained officers with those bunch of whooping jerks that pass for an elite US policing team.
I have a somewhat different perspective on the matter, because here in the States, simply having a firearm in your home isn't an arrestable offense, in fact, it's not an offense at all for responsible owners, but politics aside, the Officers screwed up. They had no grounds for a raid, or an arrest. As for the comment about US Police officers, not ALL of them are total A$$hats, in fact most of them are decent people, dedicated to doing the best they can to keep the rest of us safe. But given the nature of media-as-a-business, we only see stories about the times Police screw up. It Bleeds-It-Leads mentality, whatever you wanna call it.
I could see how in the middle of the night, inside a darkened house a lifesize dummy of Lara Croft could look like an armed person....But shining a flashlight in the window would have, A: revealed the motionless suspect to be a statue of an improbably purportioned video game character, B: May have roused the man that made the call about the harassing phones, to come to the door.
So my guess, there is at least one Police officer feeling really stupid right now, and that's probably the only reason the man with the dummy was arrested. This story will likely get the charges dropped, and net the guy a better price on ebay, not to mention give him a really funny story to tell at the next party he attends.
In short, no Blood, no foul. Replace his door, and apologize, and for the love of sanity, DROP THE CHARGES!
Well said.
American cops are a joke.
UK cops are too bad to even be funny, though.
Truth.
bet you the us swat team can tell the difference between an armed man and a cardboard cutout.
"Can I just point out however, they aren't SWAT, they're Firearms Officers. Please don't mistake our well trained officers with those bunch of whooping jerks that pass for an elite US policing team."
Firearms officers, what a stupid name. At least SWAT sounds cool. Considering our SWAT teams routinely train your firearms officers, I would say you are the whooping jerk! Whatever that means, whooping jerk, even that sounds stupid.
Let's just say you are an ignorant moron.
HAHAHA, oh man, that's awesome.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Wow. I can kinda understand them mistaking the dummy for a gunman. But why are they charging him with a gun offense? It was their mistake.
Probably due to recent firearms laws against realistic looking weapons.
Lara doesn't exactly look real there. What's more he wasn't holding the gun and they weren't answering a call in any way relating to guns. Would they arrest the owner of a store if they had the same dummy on display?
I get the feeling there's more to it than this. I live in Manchester and most of us.. well, a majority of us.. well, SOME of us aren't that stupid.
I mean, the officers would have gone into the room in question, seen the statue, and just gone "oh right". They certainly wouldn't have held him for 13 hours unless they were really really dense, or they found something else in his house.
And they only Americans are stupid
*say
We all is
Well, we are certainly stupid enought. Ayuk, ayuk.
i can walk down the street in my neighborhood and not feel as if im in danger of being shot harassed or robbed i live in the worst part of town and everyone has a gun its sad that your government doesnt trust you to not kill each other and yes the crime rate in the us is substantial but so is our population and a population to crime ratio we fair better as well as our conviction rate. it seems the uk has a bit of trouble deciding who is guilty and convicting them properly a slap on the wrist for a crazed reckless insane driver in america its called jailtime. but honestly calling the us stupid is asinine every american alive knows that bush is a bleeding retard hemmoraging america's economy into a whole new recession unlike anything weve ever seen. this is something we know but judgeing a nation by its leaders is stupid. if i were to judge your country by the standards set by your leaders what would it say ? that your countries people are impotent useless asinine jackasses. but this is not the case the uk is full of smart capable intelligent people with few exceptions, actually quite a few, but the same can be said of any country includijng my own *cough* the south *cough i am proud to be an american but i am not proud of all americans
Ha ha, that's good for some morning LOL's. I can totally identify with the officers though, entering a house where you think there's a gun can be fairly scary. Thankfully, the Army's rules of engagement make you feel a lot safer.
---------------------------------
So speak I, some random guy.
So bascially, the officers are the guys who made the incorrect assumption regarding the statue, and they charge an innocent man for their utter stupidity? Beautiful.
The guy should not be charged at all. Whoever called the police about it should for a false alarm when they could be going after REAL gunmen.
Williams WAS the one who called the cops. He called them for an unrelated incident; but then when the cops showed up to talk to him this shit happened.
Good story but unfortunately very old. Check the date of the Daily Mail article: 15 May 2007!
So what happened? What did he do?
This story is full of win! What did David WIlliams ever do about it?
I looked at this article on other sites, and they were completely one sided, making fun of the police and everything. I'm glad GamePolitics writes neutral articles, it makes the site look so much nicer.
The other site was the Daily Mail. A pile of dog poop would improve it.
How do you mistake Lara Croft for a man?!?!
It did say CRAZED gunman, he could have been one of those gunmen that have the bottom 3 pairs of ribs removed and get breast implants. You've gotta admit, thats pretty crazed...
"Oh gosh, we messed up bad! And its YOUR fault! HAH!"
Wow, they took the siloutte to be a man holding a firearm? Those policemen are obviously incompetent; they're supposedly in the business is in spotting guns, and they managed to overlook two of the biggest in the business.
Now hang on a minute - I can remember this, this happened last fucking year. Or something similar, at least.
And we call them the Armed Police - they're far too incompetant and society isn't nearly advanced enough for them to be called SWAT or held on par with them.
This is like a messed up, flipped version of what goes on over here. In the U.S. a person is convicted of a crime, and then the video games take the heat. In this case a video game character is suspected of criminal behavior and the person gets arrested.
Weird.
That IS messed up. Thanks for pointing that out. When I get eaten by a hamburger, though, I'm blaming you. :P
This story's a year old.
Ok, this article was funny up until the guy was held for 13 hours for a false claim... Seriously ha this ened with the cops finding the dummy, realizing their mistake and then everyone having a good laugh over such a stupid but reasonable mistake, this would have turned out to be a very funny story... unfortunatly it's juts a rather sad story that just tells of the incompetence of the officers.
UK has the stupidest police officers, and this isn't the only example.
That is pathetic. If they observed the silloite of the statue, they would realize it was not moving and their for could not be real. they they arrest him despite he called them to for help on the harrasing calls he was reciving. They should should have also asked who he was and called off the operation when they learned they made a mistake. Besides the stupid yelling of "Where is the weapon!", they probably viooated a lot of there own policies.
I would be scared to live in a place where officers like that were around. Failure to visually identify a threat, false arrest of an individual; hell video game taught me never to due such things. Just by that I think I could be a far better officer they they could. I hope the guy sued them.
_ eh _ what ??
I don't know what is more tragic or funny here ? The man actually being arrested or the officers being mistaken about Laura Croft being a man? If officers in this day and age can't distinguish a man from a woman neymore, then we're in real trouble...
However, he did ring the police, they responded, and he didn't answer the door. The officers then gazed into the window, and probably thought they saw a man (woman) who had hurt him. Then they charged in as they did what they are trained to do in these circumstances.
Did he ever get his Laura Croft card board figure back?
Officer 1: Oh hell, how can we save face for this screw up?
Officer 2: Save face AND get our hands on that awesome statue!
Officer 1: Trump up a firearms offense?
Officer 2: Brilliant!
That's nothing, one time I couldn't find my key before a philosophy exam so I slid a wooden bar in our slidey door to lock the house, and when I got back I climbed my balcony to get in. Some idiot called a B and A and the cops came in and arrested me for possession because they found my medicinal marijuana stash.
GP: Perhaps Manchester's high level of recent violence has made police edgy.
According to the dates on the News articles your assuming that the police were 'edgy' a full month before the article you have mentioned.
Also i would assume a year on he would have finished considering a lawsuit.
This is why we can't have nice things.
The real reason he was arrested was so that they could confiscate the statue and keep it for themselves!
insanity sweet insanity
I'm sure he'll get alot more for that statue now ><
If the officers didnt screw up, this would have been a pretty funny story. Even in england, this one would be an urban legend.
If that happen in the states, you better believe the guy would sue. Hell, he'd have the NRA helping him in the case! Regardless, I think the police owe the guy:
A) A new door and door frame
B) Anything damaged and destroyed.
C) His Lara Croft dummy back.
D) His record cleared of this icident.
E) And most importantly, a public apology.
I respect the work of GamePolitics very much. But reading this story i was like "Hmmm I have read this before".
And so I did. This story is a article from (i qoute)
James Tozer
Last updated at 18:57 15 May 2007
.... so actually this is old news.
Once again, I like your work and efforts very much... but there should be a stricter look on publication dates if you ask me.
cheers
This is an old, old story, dug up by the daily mail to drum up some interest in the game/violence malarky. I saw this in the news over a year ago - same problem, same statue, same guy arrested.
so they arrested him for making them look like idiots?
they do that so well on their own!
I am a bit confused here, in the UK is it normal for men have DD's?
Yep. I feel sooo safe knowing that this is the level of intelligence displayed by most police over here in the US.
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TheUK UK has a higher crime rates then the US
To be fair theUK
The situation would have handle differently in theUSA
Gallagher can araç kiralama say all he wants, but I strongly rent a car believe it's due to his crappy leadership and E3 being a joke. ESA's Board of Directors need to find a way to get out rent a car of this horrid contract with this Bush cronie before there's no one left on the Board.
Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because these guys have done nothing ttnet vitamin or little and need to start saving costs.
YES.
Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!
Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?
Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.
But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.
This post makes no sense to me
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