A group of students had their ‘Mad Scientist’ party brought to an abrupt end when police mistook them for terrorists.
The private party, held in Hackney, north London, was organised by a group of friends dressed in white laboratory coats and wigs, who put on a display of theatrical ‘experiments’ to entertain guests.
But when police entered the building for a routine check in the early hours of Sunday morning, they discovered scientific debris and plastic skeletons and mistook it for terrorist paraphernalia or drug-making equipment.
(via Dsynomia)
November 11, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Laboratory equipment is the semiotic trigger, it would seem. And lab equipment in Hackney? Sign of the apocalypse, mate.
November 11, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Routine check? What kind of routine check?
The sad thing is that people will just be dumbfounded or remark on the idiocy of this situation. No one will question the authority of the police in this situation – even though they were obviously wrong and out of bounds with this call.
It was Halloween. Didn’t they think to check whether or not the skeletons were plastic or the “chemicals” were drug-related? Of course not…