Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - 13-year-old ninja upsets entire town in McKinney, Texas.

Slyboots · 10-17-2005, 09:46 AM

http://www.courier-gazette.com/artic...s/news02.txt#2

Quote:

‘Ninja' prompts helicopter search in McKinney
By DANNY GALLAGHER McKinney Courier-Gazette

Police K-9 units, a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter and a teenage boy got everyone in one local neighborhood ready for Halloween early.

McKinney Police Capt. Randy Roland said police had to set up a perimeter complete with police officers and a helicopter around 9 p.m. Saturday for a 911 call from a woman walking in the 3200 block of Hudson Crossing who said she thought she was being followed by a man dressed in black with a machete.

But it turned out to be a 13-year-old boy playing ”Ninja“ in a costume with a plastic sword.

McKinney Police Capt. Randy Roland said dispatch received a 911 call about a suspicious person at 9:18 p.m. Saturday from a young woman who was walking her dog down Hudson Crossing.

According to an e-mail written by McKinney Assistant Police Chief Rex Redden that was sent to several city and police personnel, she said she thought she was being followed by a male suspect dressed in all black and carrying what appeared to be a machete. She was able to stop some other people for help. They were watching the man who turned and ran through a nearby apartment complex.

Some officers were dispatched to the scene who began searching for the man. Another witness said they observed someone with a similar description jumping the fence of the apartment complex and heading towards Gabe Nesbitt Field. Police established a perimeter with additional officers, and called in K-9 units and a DPS helicopter since the search area was large and filled with heavy woods.

Nearby residents came out of their homes to see why a police helicopter was circling over their houses. Monika Arris said nearly everyone on her block was standing outside.

”They were just trying to see what was going on,“ Arris said. ”The helicopter circled overhead for 45 minutes to an hour. You couldn't see what was going on. The traffic back there at Hudson Crossing, there was quite a bit of it. There was more there than normal for that hour.“

Collin County spokeswoman Leigh Hornsby who also lives nearby said the traffic caused by the 20 drivers she counted brought out the carelessness in some of them.

”There were so many residents who got into their vehicles trying to find the source of the incident traveling through my neighborhood, a couple of them even made U-turns through my lawn as they were looking for source of this,“ Hornsby said. ”That was my point of my frustration .“

Douglas Vining who lives on Drake Circuit said he also heard the helicopters but he wasn't worried about their reason for being there.

”It's not first time it's happened,“ Vining said. ”I wasn't locking my doors and hiding by any means. I have protection.“

Redden said in the e-mail that one of the K-9 dogs found a scent but eventually lost it. He also said the helicopter searched the wooded area with a ”Forward Looking Infrared“ or thermal camera but no one was found.

Just as police were about to call off the search, officers received a dispatch call from a man who said his 13-year-old son had been playing with his Ninja sword in the area and believed he might have accidentally scared the lady. Officers went to the man's home had ”a nice little chat with the father and his son,“ Redden said.

No charges were filed and no arrests were made. Since no report was filed on the incident, the young woman, the father and the 13-year-old could not be identified, Roland said.

Hornsby said a lot of residents were concerned about the helicopter search. She e-mailed McKinney Spokesman Steve Hill about the source of the call who passed her note on to Redden. She said everyone got a good laugh from it.

”When we learned what it is, we got mostly humor out of it,“ Hornsby said. ”It was a very humorous situation, and I'm glad it wasn't anything serious but it certainly prompted folks to get out into their vehicles to determine the source of this.“

Roland said even though this was a false alarm, the McKinney police and DPS departments did a superb job of working together and responding to the call.

”There was some good cooperation with the DPS' helicopter,“ Roland said. ”If this had been a serious incident, then those type of resources at hand are very valuable. But we didn't need them because it was all a misunderstanding.“

Wow. That kid had 1337 ninja skillz. I mean nobody could find him using all that high tech stuff. The father had to call to tell them it was his son! This kids has a promising career as a ninja.