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Stupid, stupid...STUPID!!!
Hey, SGTDave and Don...here's a little something about Ybor!
Something similar to this happened outside a military base, but it ended tragically. This could have been a big deal! Stupid, stupid, stupid people!
TAMPA -- Participants in a role-playing mystery game had a real-life run-in with police, resulting in two arrests.
Eight paying customers were playing along with a murder-mystery plot in Ybor City, Tampa's main entertainment and historic district, Saturday. One of the actors drew a starter's pistol that fires with blanks as he pretended to shoot another actor.
But somebody called 911 and reported it was a kidnapping.
The Tampa Police Department arrived en masse with eight to 10 squad cars. Officers saw Joe Kirane, the actor playing the gunman, and ordered him to the ground -- their real guns drawn, police said.
Officer Gary Pruitt pushed Kirane to the pavement and handcuffed him. Reports said the impact on the ground caused a gash on Kirane's forehead, and it started bleeding.
"The gentleman arrested is very fortunate he wasn't shot," police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "It looked like an armed situation."
The participants weren't sure if the arrest was real or part of the $175-per-person show put on by Medallion Adventures.
"The lieutenant said, 'Explain to me what's going on,' " said participant Kathy Mashburn from Elberta, Ala.
She repeated the story line of the game: She was the shareholder of a biotech company run by corrupt scientists. She was infected with a deadly virus and had to find the antidote.
"He was just nodding," Mashburn said. "Then I said, 'It's a great day,' (the password participants used among themselves.) And he looked at me funny."
She said she then asked the officer: "This is real, isn't it?"
Kirane was taken to the emergency room at Tampa General Hospital. He was taken to jail after his release and was charged with resisting arrest without violence.
Participant Barbara Dion, 54, was also booked into jail with her bail set at $500. Participants said Dion laughed when police requested information, and refused to give them her date of birth.
"I think it's too real, no matter what," she said as she sat in the back of the police cruiser. "It's too serious for me."
Police later said that Kirane was lucky the officer didn't fire at him after seeing him with the pistol. They said that such events should be cleared with the city and the police department before they begin.
The game, however, continued. After a break for lunch, the participants started looking for clues under an altered script.
Medallion said it has staged hundreds of similar mysteries at bed and breakfasts, on ships, even on a train.
Something similar to this happened outside a military base, but it ended tragically. This could have been a big deal! Stupid, stupid, stupid people!
TAMPA -- Participants in a role-playing mystery game had a real-life run-in with police, resulting in two arrests.
Eight paying customers were playing along with a murder-mystery plot in Ybor City, Tampa's main entertainment and historic district, Saturday. One of the actors drew a starter's pistol that fires with blanks as he pretended to shoot another actor.
But somebody called 911 and reported it was a kidnapping.
The Tampa Police Department arrived en masse with eight to 10 squad cars. Officers saw Joe Kirane, the actor playing the gunman, and ordered him to the ground -- their real guns drawn, police said.
Officer Gary Pruitt pushed Kirane to the pavement and handcuffed him. Reports said the impact on the ground caused a gash on Kirane's forehead, and it started bleeding.
"The gentleman arrested is very fortunate he wasn't shot," police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "It looked like an armed situation."
The participants weren't sure if the arrest was real or part of the $175-per-person show put on by Medallion Adventures.
"The lieutenant said, 'Explain to me what's going on,' " said participant Kathy Mashburn from Elberta, Ala.
She repeated the story line of the game: She was the shareholder of a biotech company run by corrupt scientists. She was infected with a deadly virus and had to find the antidote.
"He was just nodding," Mashburn said. "Then I said, 'It's a great day,' (the password participants used among themselves.) And he looked at me funny."
She said she then asked the officer: "This is real, isn't it?"
Kirane was taken to the emergency room at Tampa General Hospital. He was taken to jail after his release and was charged with resisting arrest without violence.
Participant Barbara Dion, 54, was also booked into jail with her bail set at $500. Participants said Dion laughed when police requested information, and refused to give them her date of birth.
"I think it's too real, no matter what," she said as she sat in the back of the police cruiser. "It's too serious for me."
Police later said that Kirane was lucky the officer didn't fire at him after seeing him with the pistol. They said that such events should be cleared with the city and the police department before they begin.
The game, however, continued. After a break for lunch, the participants started looking for clues under an altered script.
Medallion said it has staged hundreds of similar mysteries at bed and breakfasts, on ships, even on a train.
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