BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — Police have issued a warning after they caught two teenagers using a fake gun to scare drivers.
Investigators showed Channel 2 Action News a real rifle and the toys. They look very similar.
Brookhaven police said they received a 911 call saying someone was being held at gunpoint on Redding Way Saturday.
"I just drove past a guy holding what looked like a gun to another guy's head laying on the ground," said Esther Grass-Radford as she called 911 Saturday night.
Channel 2’s Carl Willis tracked down Grass-Radford on Monday. She said it was hard to tell if the incident was real.
"I saw something that was really upsetting and it was really hard to tell if it was real or a prank," Grass-Radford told Willis.
As it turns out, they were toy guns. Police say they found two teens involved hiding in the bushes, who told them they were trying to prank passing drivers.
"Had someone been driving through this area that was armed and they would have seen this, someone pointing a gun to the head of another person, this call could have had a much different ending," said Maj. Brandon Gurley, with the Brookhaven Police Department.
Willis stopped by the family's home Monday night. One of the boys’ grandmother did not want to talk on camera but handed Willis the airsoft rifle in question. She wanted him to see that it is clearly a toy.
She said she's punished her grandson and talked to him about a 12-year-old in Cleveland who was killed holding a toy gun.
Police say the differences are difficult to identify during a split-second decision.
"Officers are being trained now to treat every weapon as a real weapon until they physically lay hands on it to confirm if it's real or not," Gurley said.
Police say if the caller hadn't left the information about the incident involving children, things may have taken a tragic turn.