It was a Wild West scenario that fizzled out. Two men, a woman and several children in Utrecht suddenly came face to face with police officers with guns drawn. Because there would be weapons possession, the police took no risk. Those weapons were indeed found, but turned out to be fake.
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The police received a report early in the morning about two men ‘reloading their weapons’ at the Van Deventerlaan in Utrecht. The police did not know that these were airsoft weapons, ball weapons that are used for sports at associations.
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“In such cases we cannot take any risks,” said police spokesman Hans Meuleman. “These kind of ball guns are indistinguishable from the real thing up close. Let alone from a distance.” At around 9:20 a.m., the two men were in a car with a woman and several children on the same road, when police approached them with guns drawn.
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Several firearms were found at the scene, all of which turned out to be fake. The two men were subsequently arrested and the weapons seized. Not much later they were released again, but with a police report on their pants. The Public Prosecution Service determines what their punishment will be and what happens to the weapons.
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Dangerous
“This incident shows once again how dangerous it is to throw fake weapons around in public,” says Meuleman. “Before you know it, you’re looking down the barrel of a police gun. Fake weapons are legal under certain conditions, such as that you absolutely must not walk on the street with them.” The police fear that new fake weapons will enter the country during the holiday season. Fake weapons are freely available in countries like Croatia. My advice: just don’t buy those things.”
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