I Was Pulled Over By Cops for carrying an UMBRELLA!

[lostzombies.com]

snip

No not at all, I don't know what world you think you live in but the shit you pulled and have the nerve to whine about on the internet about very likey could have gotten you shot. It would have been one of those stories we see once in a while where someone when confronted by the police pulls out a mobile phone and points it at the police for a joke then gets shot. Or someone says they have a bomb in their luggage for a joke...and get shot, then everyone says that once in a while we need a bit of bleach in the gene pool and humanity isn't missing anything big.

You carried around something that is designed to look like a concealed weapon. Someone rightly calls the police and the police are told someone is walking around in the street with a concealed weapon. The police turn up and see you have a long black thing hidden in an umberella, they will think gun.

I'm not ragging on you for no reason, I'm trying to make you realise that you could have been shot for doing what you did and the police would have been well within their rights if you had turned the umberella towards them. Police don't take chances. I mean you must have known what you were doing, didn't you have a voice inside your head saying this is something wrong?

If you didn't have that little voice then instead of coming onto the internet to whine about being rightyfully called on being in the wrong, you need to take some time and think about consquences before you do things because luckily you were not hurt but it could have been a very, very difference end.

 

[Aethren]

Okay, I am SO buying one of those. 20 bucks for the travel-sized 'Tanto' variant, or 30 for the 'Katana' full-sized one, hell yeah. Comes with a shoulder strap too. ^_^

 

[Cazza]

Thats clearly an assault rilfe. I mean katana. I mean unmbrella.

Really though I'm not suprised they treated the situation like you had a real weapon. The one time a cop doesn't take it real they get killed.

You could have stuck an umbrella top on a katana and really had a weapon. The idiot who thought a katana was an assault rifle is really stupid.

 

[Kris015]

The police didn't screw up, the people who reported him did.

Assuming there is no embellishing in the OP, the cops are at fault, not the people who called it in.

Not sure if we've all heard of the 2nd Amendment, but it protects the rights to bear arms. I.E. It's legal to walk down the street with a rifle or pistol in your hand, as long as you're not pointing it at people, or shooting it, obviously.

Now, there ARE limits on the types of guns you can own. Fully automatic weapons (either rifle or pistol) have stricter rules, and are often illegal, but a cop would have no reason to assume rate of fire, if all he had were random anonymous reports. There are also laws regarding concealment, but that was obviously not a factor here.

Really though, there's no way anyone familiar with rifles would make that grievous of a mistake. If anything, the katana umbrella (note: the one being held in the picture is the tanto variety, approx half length) resembles a bolt-action Winchester, or some such. There's just not enough "meat" on the thing to pass for any common assault rifle (m-16, AK-47, Steyr aug) And, as covered above, that's legal.


TL;DR : Shenanigans @ OP

I'm not american so obviously i wouldn't know all that

 

[Mandalore_15]

I was carrying an umbrella with a katana handle
obviously an umbrella

But that's kinda the point, isn't it? From a distance, it ISN'T particularly obvious it's an umbrella, especially if it's the golf umbrella.

The instant I saw the thread on the homepage I KNEW it'd be talking about that fucking stupid katana-umbrella. I don't know why you'd want such a pants-on-head retarded object anyway, they're not cool.

 

[Nieroshai]

Yeah and my hat is a f***ing cruise missile! Honestly, people can be morons. Which reminds me of a joke.

A man tears off all of his clothes and runs down the street firing an uzi and waving a machete. An innocent bystander manages to escape into a phone booth and ring up the police.
POLICE:Hello, what is your emergency?
BYSTANDER:There's a naked man outside!


It sounded funnier when I heard it.

 

[mjc0961]

Well, I don't know what to say. If someone reported a guy walking down the sidewalk carrying an assault rifle, of course they are going to investigate that. And of course they are going to ask you to put your hands on your head and whatnot while they check to make sure if you actually have any weapons or not. It's for your safety as much as theirs: if you have your hands on your head and are doing as they say, they aren't going to mistake you making some move as you going for a weapon. And if they don't think you're going for a weapon, they aren't going to shoot you. Not really overkill; from what you said it doesn't sound like they made you lie facedown on the ground or something, you make it sound like you were standing.

I find it odd that someone thought it was an assault rifle, though. When you said it was a katana handle and showed the picture, I thought that someone would have said you had a katana. But assault rifle? Okay...

This is why I'd rather have a nice colored umbrella without a fancy handle than the one in your picture, though. Nobody in their right mind would think this was a weapon, unless they watched way too much Batman Returns or something. [http://www.sz-wholesale.com/uploadFiles/upimg3/23-quot--CLASSIC-UMBRELLA17018.jpg]

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Unlucky OP but just roll with it it's not the policeman's fault that people are dumb.

I've been stopped and searched 3 times so far in the UK under the "anti-terroism legislation". Clearly my backpack full of textbooks, pens and notes is far more dangerous than I realised. If I only figured out which one of those the police were scared of I could make a killing selling it to criminals honest gentlemen who dislike the law.

Edit- Checking it out from a difference it wouldn't be too hard to mistake it for an assault rifle. People often see what they are expecting rather than what is actually there this increases over distance as the brain tries to fill in visual gaps with things it is expecting to see in that space.

Tell me those assault rifle grips don't look like sword handles.

 

[thePyro_13]

I've been tempted to get one of those umbrellas. But decided not to because people might mistake it for a concealed sword.

I don't think the police were unreasonable, they have to take claims like that seriously, and they can never know when some random yobbo will be carrying a gun. I understand that they don't have any real choice in the USA, where guns are so common.

I'm more surprised that people claimed you were carrying an assault rifle, rather than a sword. That just doesn't make any sense.

 

[RevRaptor]

Dude something similar happened to me. Except the cops were actually pretty nice about it. I was walking to a party with an obviously toy rifle. It had a big yellow barrel and some moron called the cops on me. they drove past me to take a quick look then pulled up to have a quiet chat. we all laughed at the stupidity of the situation and they gave me a lift to the party to make sure there were no further calls.

 

[mjc0961]

OT: I woulda just popped it open and asked where i put the clip.

And you woulda just been shot too, if the police had their weapons drawn. If they ask you to do something while pointing a gun at you, you do it. "I got stopped and searched for carrying an umbrella!" is a much better story than "I got killed because police thought my umbrella was a weapon and I didn't listen when they told me to drop it and instead decided to point it at them to show them it's not a gun!"

So yeah, I'd just listen. Being inconvenienced for a few minutes while they check and make sure that it's not actually a weapon is better than getting dead because they were following their training.

 

[Haydyn]

At first wehn I read this, I immediately began getting ready to insult the police force. After thinking for a moment, the police just got the call. Whoever confused an umbrella as an assault rifle is the one who needs to be "darwinated".

 

[Bobbity]

I get about halfway through the OP thinking you were pulled over for having a katana, and then they get you for having an assault rifle? That blew my mind.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Most places don't allow people to walk around with a sword. If you were stupid enough to think that this would not happen then you deserve this. Seriously, why did you buy an umberella that looks as if it contains a sword if you didn't want people to think it was a sword?

Dumb much?

It's like carrying around a lunchbox shaped like an Uzi then complaining that someone called the cops because someone was walking around with a gun.

Seriously you and only you are at fault here. Man up.

Well most of the time it's in it's thing at my house for show, when I take it into public I generally have the handle in my sleeve and use it as a cane until it begins to rain

being that the walk home is about 2 miles and it was sunny out I didn't want to damage the tip or anything so I was carrying it, handle towards the ground, umbrella'ness rather obvious

Spoiler: Random Thought...

plus last I checked I believe it would be legal if it WERE a sword because I wasn't brandishing it, and technically speaking I could just be taking it from one place to another without the help of a car

if they had asked/yelled to drop the blade I would have immediately dropped it held my hands up and tried to calmly explain the situation

but being yelled at to "DROP THE GUN!" it was hard to even tell they were talking to me

as for your Uzi comment about the lunchbox
no that's not what it would have been like

this is more along the lines of a fat guy in a sweatshirt being stopped because someone thought he was actually skinny and he had a bomb strapped to him

or someone stoping you for wearing a greenday shirt on the statement "He has a grenade!"

or to make it more realistic

you're carrying an airsoft gun and get stopped for carrying a sword!

EDIT: Dang, boffer wars must be a nightmare
hundreds of kids walking around with sword shaped PVC pipe coated in Duct Tape

...oh my

You're carrying an assault rifle and get pulled over for having an umbrella.

 

[Eldarion]

Now what would have been really funny is if it was an assault rifle and you had a licence to carry it, lol what now cops?

 

[mjc0961]

There is/was a band called This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb. I copied the rest of this post from wikipedia.
"On March 2, 2006 at 5:30 am an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant bearing a promotional sticker for the band. The officer saw the words, "This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb" and became concerned. The area was cordoned off, and part of the campus was closed for several hours. The bicycle was subsequently destroyed by the Athens bomb squad despite assurances from the bike's owner that it was just a sticker. The owner, a graduate student, was initially charged with inducing panic, a misdemeanor. However, the charges were dropped a few days later. Later the student was awarded money for the damages to his bicycle.[1][2]

A similar incident occurred in 2001, when a police officer spotted and detained a woman at an Austin, Texas peace rally. Her bicycle was also labeled with the band's sticker. The woman was released after the band's existence was confirmed.[3]

On March 14, 2006 Bellarmine Hall at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA was evacuated because of another bicycle with the band's name painted on it. No charges were filed.[4]

On February 16, 2009, Terminal C at Memphis International Airport was evacuated because of a bicycle with the band's sticker on it. A pilot notified police when he saw the bike, with the band's sticker on it, parked outside of the terminal. Police evacuated the terminal and sent in K9 units; however, no explosive materials were found. Police arrested the owner of the bike but let the owner go a few hours later because he had not committed a crime.[5][6] After hearing about the incident, the band's lead singer urged fans to use caution when they applied the stickers."

In conclusion: cops are dumb.
I've been searched just because I had long hair. And I didn't even have a katana handle attached to my head.

No, the conclusion I drew from that is that people are dumb. It is the job of the police to protect the citizens from that, and anything that looks like a bomb threat should be taken as serious. What if one of those bikes really was a bomb, the police ignored it, and people were killed? That's a much worse story than "some kid's bike got destroyed because it had a sticker saying it was a bomb."

Those people should be smart enough not to put stickers that say "[object name here] is a bomb" on their stuff, band name or no.

Not sure if we've all heard of the 2nd Amendment, but it protects the rights to bear arms. I.E. It's legal to walk down the street with a rifle or pistol in your hand, as long as you're not pointing it at people, or shooting it, obviously.

I think we've all heard of the 2nd amendment, but it doesn't sound like you've heard of local and federal gun control laws. Or furthermore, what the second amendment actually allows (hint: it's not "you can walk around in public with a gun without a permit as much as you want as long as you don't point it at anyone.").

----------------------

Okay, if you ask me, the picture in the OP is also quite misleading. The TC has said that he has the Katana version and that he's used it as a cane a few times. That means he has the long one, not the short "tanto" version featured in the picture the OP gave us.

Notice it also has that strap on it, which some guns also have.

So yeah, now it seems more reasonable that it could be mistaken for even an assault rifle at a distance. At this point, I'm still sticking by the police not being stupid. I'm also inclined to say that maybe the people who called in the report aren't that stupid either. What seems stupid to me is walking around with an umbrella that is clearly designed to look as much like a real weapon as possible and then being surprised when someone mistakes it for one. Buy a damn normal umbrella for public use and keep that novelty umbrella indoors to say "hey check out this cool umbrella" to friends who visit you.

 

[gl1koz3]

They apparently don't even know how assault rifles look.

 

[mjc0961]

Yes, I'm sure terrarist are very serious about labeling explosives.

You are doing a fantastic job at missing the point. If there are criminals dumb enough to take pictures of themselves in the middle of robbing someone's house and then send those pictures to their victim via Facebook, then there are criminals out there dumb enough to put "I AM A BOMB" on a bomb. And again, it's always better for the police to respond to such threats as if they were serious to make sure no one is hurt rather than ignore it and risk people getting hurt. If you want to avoid such scenarios, use even the smallest bit of common sense and don't put "THIS IS A BOMB" on your shit.

What would you rather see on the news? "POLICE RESPOND TO BOMB THREAT, FIND NOTHING", or "POLICE IGNORE BOMB THREAT, HUNDREDS DEAD OR INJURED IN BLAST"? I'd take the former any day.

 

[Fanta Grape]

At first I was thinking, "Well that's understandable. I mean from a distance, it might definitely look like a katana."

And then I laughed out loud ;D

 

[godfist88]

does that look anything like an assault rifle? talk about paranoid.