Lawn Chair mistaken for gun?

Police and Swat team gets carried away? You decide:

A parent attempting to record a middle school football game from the school’s roof was misidentified as a sniper, causing police to evacuate hundreds of people from the field. Is this the type of thing that could only occur in Utah? Midvale, Utah to be exact.

The accused parent, James Kranz wanted to shoot video of his children playing on Saturday. But an officer spotted him climbing a ladder onto the school’s roof with what looked like a rifle, said police Sgt. Gregg Olsen. How can you mistake a video camera for a rifle?

“An officer saw a man on top of the roof, walking around, pacing back and forth,” Olsen said. “He was acting extremely suspicious.”

It turned out to be a lawn chair that Kranz had with him — not a gun. Oh yes, lawn chairs really look like guns these days. Maybe it was one of those folding ones that come in their own bag?

The SWAT team was called in after Kranz was spotted on the roof.

Parent Andres Dominguez reported hearing someone screaming, “Shooting! Shooting!” when officials ordered the field cleared. He was skeptical, but followed fans off the field.

Another spectator spotted SWAT team members scanning the rooftop with rifles and figured it wasn’t a false alarm.

“When I saw the police looking through their scopes, following this guy across the roof, I thought it was for real,” Ron Watkins a spectator at the game said.

Kranz jumped down from the roof and ran when officers tried to get him to drop to his knees and show his hands, Olsen said. Kranz told police he didn’t respond because he didn’t believe they were really officers. What did he think they were? Early Halloween’ers?

Authorities ticketed Kranz for trespassing, then ordered him off the school grounds.

I know the world is a scary place at times but I still don’t understand how this small crowd could have thought the parent had a gun. If I was there I would have been more concerned that he was a pedophile watching the kids.