At around 5:00 PM, the police received a report about a deal taking place at Abdijplein in Middelburg. The police quickly arrived on the scene and stopped a minor based on the description provided. The boy attempted to escape but was soon apprehended again by an officer. During the check, the officers noticed that the boy was hiding something in his pocket. It turned out to be a firearm. The young man was arrested and taken to the station for questioning.

Weapon at school

Earlier that day, police officers visited a high school in Walcheren because a student was reported to have a firearm. Later, it turned out that the firearm was fake, but it was hardly distinguishable from a real weapon. The weapon was said to have come from an online sales platform. After the discovery, the home of the minor was searched, but no suspicious materials were found. The boy was arrested and questioned at the police station.

Fake firearms are prohibited!

If you are 14 years or older and you walk around with a fake weapon that looks so real that you can threaten someone with it, you are committing an offense. Especially if you also commit another crime with it, for example, if you shoot someone with a gel blaster because you want to participate in a TikTok challenge. You can face prison time or a hefty fine. At the very least, you will have a criminal record and will not receive a certificate of conduct for an internship or a cool job.

This is what happens when you walk around with a (fake) weapon

Officers always take the safe route and wear their bulletproof vests. So, it may be that they initially treat you as a firearm-threatening suspect. In that case, they will force you to lay down the weapon with drawn pistols and hold your hands up. If you do not comply or make jokes about it, you risk being shot. With all the consequences that entails. Only after that will we check whether your weapon is real or a toy weapon.

You may find this exaggerated, but officers are confronted with weapons almost every day in their work, not knowing in advance whether they are deadly or not. If we assume right away that these are probably gel blasters, there is a chance that we could quickly be dead. Or that people around us could die whom we should have protected. Tip: do not buy (fake) weapons, as it prevents a lot of trouble.