Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #592

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Reported Armed Man At Scottish Train Station Was 'Star Wars' Stormtrooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1BLW1cz-Cs
By Ben Hooper
April 9 (UPI) -- Police in Scotland said a reported armed man who led to a train returning to a station turned out to be
a Star Wars cosplay- er on his way to a comic book conven- tion.
The man, known as the Grampian Stormtrooper on
social media, was dressed in his Imperial Stormtrooper costume "with a Scottish twist" -- a kilt -- when he boarded a ScotRail train to Dundee at the
Aberdeen train sta- tion.
The train returned to the station shortly after departing and the man was approached by a guard who escorted him to waiting police officers.
The cosplayer
wrote on
Facebook that he was "met by two firearms officers, three Police Scotland, two British Transport police, and had to chat to them all in an office."
The man learned that he had been reported for carrying a "firearm" on the train, and he explained to police that his "blaster" was a plas- tic prop.
Police took the man home so he could get a bag for his blaster so as not to alarm his fellow train passen- gers again. He said
he was also asked not to wear his full Stormtrooper armor on the train.
The man, who was headed to DeeCon at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, said it was the first time in 10 years of cosplay- ing that he has been approached by police.
A British Transport Police spokesperson confirmed the inci- dent in a statement issued to AberdeenLive.
"Officers received reports of a man with a firearm entering Aberdeen station just before 9 a.m. on Saturday (April 6)," the representative said. "Officers attend- ed alongside col- leagues from Police Scotland and it was determined it was a false alarm."
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