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Talk about a bad morning: First, a tree removal crew was working outside Michael Smith's Norridgewock, Maine, home while he tried to sleep. Then, cops armed with assault rifles were showing up at Smith's door.
It seems the police had been tipped off to Smith's potential dangerousness by the tree removal crew. Earlier that morning, a shirtless Smith had gone outside and yelled at them to leave. Some of them noticed that Smith had a handgun tucked into the waist of his pants. Or thought they noticed a handgun.
What the crew had really seen was Smith's life-size gun tattoo.
"Obviously it was a misunderstanding and he didn't have a weapon, but we had to respond to the initial report as if he did," Maine State Police Trooper Scott Duff told the Maine Morning Sentinel. "We take all precautions when we don't have the details."
The Associated Press notes that "police didn't charge him." Charge him with what? What charge could they have possibly drummed up here? (Don't answer that.) Let's just be glad Smith put a shirt on before opening the door to the cops, or things could have played out much more tragically. "I got plans today. I didn't want to get shot," Smith said.
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