 An OPP officer directs a suspect to leave an SUV on the northbound lanes of Hwy. 427, in Toronto, Ont., Sunday, August 16, 2009. Three men were directed to leave an SUV at gunpoint after police received a call indicating there were weapons seen. (Sun Media/Ernest Doroszuk)
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TORONTO -- Now, that's reality television.
Early Sunday evening the OPP responded to a call from a motorist describing a black SUV with weapons on board travelling on Hwy. 427.
Soon after, police stopped the vehicle with weapons drawn and two men were detained.
That's when someone should have yelled "cut."
It turns out the reported weapon was a camera and the duo were doing some filming.
"It was in a way a routine response to a weapons call" said OPP traffic Sgt. Dave Woodford. "This is how we respond to such calls. The men were checked out and sent on their way with no charges."
There are no charges for operating a camera inside a vehicle that Woodford is aware of.
"You guys do it with me all the time," laughed Woodford, who deals regularly with the media when the provincial police are involved. "So far, we haven't had this kind of experience captured so well by a Sun photographer."
You can hardly blame police for reacting as they did in a region with so much gunplay. So far the OPP have had no reports of their officers hiring Hollywood agents.
Or demanding bigger dressing rooms.
Meanwhile the joke in both the media and police world is everybody hopes the crew was rolling. You want real-life TV. This was it.
"It would be good footage," said Woodford.
He said such stops are done as a "precaution."
