Teen Playing with Pellet Gun Causes Bank Robbery Scare

Cedar Rapids police officers stand by next to a 13-year-old boy who had a pellet gun in his possession along Williams Boulevard SW. (Jeff Raasch/The Gazette)

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By Becky Ogann

Story Created: Nov 6, 2009 at 4:46 PM CST

Story Updated: Nov 6, 2009 at 6:25 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS - Police say a call for a bank robbery lead to officers taking a 13-year-old down at gunpoint, but he never robbed the bank.

Instead, police say the boy had found a pellet gun and was walking along Williams Blvd in front of the Dupaco Credit Union while he was playing with the gun.

Dupaco employees locked the doors and called the police, not knowing it was a pellet gun.

"We don't have super-ray vision to tell if its a real gun or a fake gun, so we treat them all as if they're real. its a sad thing that we have pellet guns that look so real," said Cristy Hamblin, Cedar Rapids Police Department.

Just this spring, Cedar Rapids made it illegal to walk in public with a pellet gun to prevent incidents like this. Investigators say this is the eleventh incident since then.

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