Halloween Costume Prompts Report To Police
Wal-Mart Employee Carrying Toy Gun Concerns Motorist
Last updated Wednesday, October 31, 2007 5:58 PM CDT in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
THE MORNING NEWS
BENTONVILLE -- Little Bo Peep lost her sheep ...
Whether a Wal-Mart Home Office employee -- dubbed "military man" for Halloween -- lost his pretend assault rifle remains unknown.
Wal-Mart's media relations department didn't return repeated phone calls requesting comment about employee Jason Bunch, whose toy AK-47 created quite a stir for Bentonville police Wednesday.
Police rushed to the corporate headquarters in Bentonville around midmorning after a scared woman reported a man in military garb holding what she thought was a real gun. The unidentified woman was driving on "F" Street when she saw the man circling the headquarters building before entering.
He was going about his normal business, said Lt. Mike Smith of the Bentonville Police Department.
Police found Bunch dressed in a real military camouflage uniform and carrying a toy gun among other employees who were dressed for Halloween, Smith said. One woman in the group was dressed like Little Bo Peep from the nursery rhyme.
Smith praised the concerned woman's attention to detail as she snapped a picture of the employee with a digital camera that was in her car.
"I wouldn't recommend doing this normally, but she felt safe from a distance" to take the picture, Smith said. "She didn't think he was a terrorist. She was a concerned citizen."
Detective Glynn Bertrand described Bunch as being in his mid- to late-20s.
"As far as we know, he hadn't made any threatening movements with (the gun)," Bertrand said.
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Twinkie wrote on Oct 31, 2007 10:01 PM: