Life-Size 'Call Of Duty' Statue Perplexes LAPD In Game Studio Raid
SHERMAN OAKS (CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles Police Department officers were perplexed by a life-size statue of a "Call of Duty" soldier during a raid at a video game studio.
Around 7 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to a panic alarm call at Robotoki on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.
Once on the second floor of the building, they saw what appeared to be a sniper at the window.
Robotoki founder Robert Bowling, the only person in the office, said he had no time to tell the cops that the soldier with the assault rifle was actually Simon "Ghost" Riley from "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."
"As soon as they hit the top of the stairs, you have a direct line of sight to where 'Ghost' is standing at the window. You see them pause for a second looking at 'Ghost.' And then they go in, check it out, spend a little time in there, and clear the rest of the building," said Bowling.
"They asked me to come out, put my hands up…they detained me to make sure I'm not what they're there for," he added.
In the end, Bowling said the whole situation was a false alarm.
The gamer said his employees hit the panic button from his office's newly installed alarm system.
"You see on a security camera, them looking at this panic button, looking around, discussing it, then pressing it and looking around to see what happens. And nothing happened right away," said Bowling.
The LAPD said Robotoki studio will not be hit with a fine for the incident, but Bowling told KCAL9's Juan Fernandez that he'd be okay with paying up.
"They put a lot of time and effort to come out here, check it out, clear the whole studio, and make sure we were okay. And that's exactly what the panic alarm is designed for. And if I have to pay a little bit...because they didn't have to do their full thing...then I'm okay with that," he said.
