A group of students were filming a staged robbery for a student project Thursday morning, but no one told Glendora Police.
A woman made a frantic 9-1-1 call to Glendora Police Thursday morning when she saw two robbers wearing hooded sweatshirts, bandana masks, black gloves and carrying firearms overtaking Classic Coffee through the coffee shop window. Glendora Police officers quickly responded, swarming the coffee shop with guns drawn, according to a statement by Glendora Police.
But there were no robbers at Classic Coffee, only a group of students with toy, but very real-looking firearms, filming a Christian movie for a school project. The students received permission to shoot the film in the coffee shop, but did not notify local police, nor did they have permits from the city to film.
Captain Tim Staab told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that luckily, no one was injured in the incident.
When officers responded to the scene, they encountered one of the "suspects" carrying a handgun who "did not follow the commands of officers to 'drop the gun,'" according to the statement.
"The other kid, held [the gun] in his hand -- no mistake on his part because in his mind he was just filming, but in our officers' minds, it was very real." Staab told the Tribune. "One of the officers said (the suspect) began squeezing the trigger, and had there been one adverse motion by the guy holding the gun, it would have been a tragedy."
Glendora Police said Classic Coffee manager Jonathan Sparling gave the film crew permission to film, and didn’t think about notifying the Police Department or obtaining a film permit.
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