Indiana Cops Shoot at Actor Playing Bank Robber, Why?

ACTOR PLAYING ROBBER SHOT AT BY INDIANA POLICE

An actor playing a bank robber was shot at by police while filming in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The actor, Jim Duff, had just completed a scene they were shooting for a heist film when he stepped outside. Of course, he was wearing a black ski mask and was also holding his prop pistol in hand. But almost instantly he was surrounded by on-duty Indiana cops screaming at him to drop his weapon. One of them shot at him.

INDIANA COPS RESPONDED TO ARMED ROBBER CALL, SEE ACTOR LEAVING “SCENE” WITH VISIBLE WEAPON AND PROCEED ACCORDINGLY

Somebody saw fit to call the Indiana cops and State Police and report an armed robbery at the Crawfordsville’s Backstep Brewery which was the location Duff and the film crew were using to film their scene that day. So when the officers saw Duff appear out of the brewery and he looked like one of the robbers from Michael Mann’s Heat, they immediately pulled their weapons. They then proceeded to scream at him to drop his gun but Duff, confused and surprised at the sudden appearance of screaming and armed cops, just turned around.

“The next thing I know I heard a gun-shot and something buzz by my head,” Duff told The Blot.

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ACTOR JUST TURNED AROUND SHOCKED, STILL HOLDING PROP GUN WHEN OFFICE FIRED AND MISSED

Duff related how he ripped off his mask, tossed his toy gun to the ground, and loudly screamed “it’s a movie!” at the cops surrounding him. Luckily for him and the officer who pulled the trigger, the shot went wide and no one was hurt.

Apparently, as per the explanation from Indiana State Police sergeant Kim Riley, the low-budget studio behind the movie, Montgomery County Movies, failed to inform local law enforcement about their plans to film a realistic-looking bank robbery at a real neighborhood brewery. They also apparently had all the camera gear inside the building out of sight, and didn’t have any “QUIET ON SET” signs or the like hanging up around the building, not to mention any production staff trolling on walkies.

PRODUCTION FAILED TO NOTIFY ANYONE THEY WERE SHOOTING A ROBBERY SCENE, SO PASSERSBY AND POLICE MIGHT THINK THE WORST

“He was in a ski mask and holding a weapon. Whether it’s real or not, you don’t know that at the time,” Riley, an Indiana Cop said to The Blot. “When you’re told to do something, the one thing you don’t do is turn towards police while you’re holding a gun.”

Even though Duff’s weapon was about as lethal as a Nerf gun, police had him detained and held him in custody until they could confirm his story, Fox 59 reports. He was eventually released.

But this isn’t the first time the line between Hollywood heist films and reality has gotten a little blurred. Last August, a small Pennsylvania town went a little nuts and was spending prop movie money like it was real cash. And then a few days later, a band of armed robbers wearing nun outfits went all Ben Affleck on a Pennsylvania bank, staging a hold up like a scene straight out of The Town.