UMBRELLA TRIGGERS BOGUS MASS. GUN SCARE

UMBRELLA

WALLY

TO be fair, from distance you can see why some people might have thought it was a rifle.
But as a result hundreds of police officers, including SWAT teams descended on a Burlington, Mass., mall thinking a mad gunman was on the loose. According to state police, the witnesses reported seeing a short white man wearing a gray sweatshirt, black pants, and a black backpack, carrying what at the time, was thought to
be a rifle.
Dotti Gerrior, who works at Victoria's Secret told WBZ: “We got a call to evacuate the mall there’s a mall running around with a gun. Everyone was told to get out. "
Some hid while others made a break for it, still unaware that there was no mad gunman on the loose - just a man with an umbrella.
The man, who worked nearby contacted police after realizing he fit the description of the news reports. Officers were able to use surveillance video and witnesses to confirm that man was the person they had been looking for.
The mall was quickly reopened, the investigation was closed.
Far from being annoyed however, Burlington Chief Michael Kent praised the witnesses who saw something and said something.
He said: “I would hope that if the exact same thing happened tomorrow that they would do the same thing as would we.”