There are probably more gun-friendly cities that San Francisco. But it doesn’t matter what city you’re filming in, if a bunch of cops charge in with guns drawn and yelling at you to drop the plastic gun in your hand, you’d be well advised to do it. David Lubin (not pictured above), the non-compliant actor in this case, is mighty lucky to be alive…

A Japanese production company called Duo Creative Communications was on location filming something called “World’s Most Interesting Footage.” It nearly got a whole lot more interesting that they’d planned.

As sfgate.com details, Lubin was posing as a masked stick-up man holding a store owner at gunpoint when a good samaritan, not realizing it was all in good fun, dropped a dime on him.

Several San Francisco police officers responding to a 911 call about an armed robbery ran into the Alpha Market on Cole Street this week with guns drawn.

“Drop the gun!” an officer ordered, aiming his weapon at a man in a ski mask brandishing a pistol.

Instead of dropping the gun, the man in the mask turned to the officers and said, “It’s a movie!”

The cops showed admirable restraint in not moving a good portion of his insides to the outside when Lubin continued to hold onto the faux heater.

What happened next, according to Ade Saba, owner of the Alpha Market at 960 Cole St., is that the police “got really upset.”

“They wanted him to drop the gun, but the guy didn’t take it seriously because he knows it’s a plastic gun,” Saba said.

The police report said “the gunman refused to put down his pistol, and the officers overpowered and disarmed him.” He was not arrested.

Upset? Go figure. Turns out the crew had actually stopped filming by the time the cops arrived, which explains why they didn’t notice the lights and cameras when they got there. Lubin evidently likes to hang out on set after, er, shooting, still in costume. And holding his prop.

Despite some heated words after the fact from the boys in blue, and later by the city’s film commission, the Duo Creative producers had jumped through all the right municipal hoops and had the necessary permits in hand to do what they were doing. The whole thing was just a wacky misunderstanding. It’s just a good thing that there wasn’t a nasty clean-up in aisle six of the Alpha Market to take care of.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. …filming something called “World’s Most Interesting Footage.”

    They should have left the camera’s running – now that would be some interesting footage.

  3. On a side note, this story gives a great example of why armed private citizens should NOT get involved in anything that doesn’t directly involve them. Imagine the fallout if a CCW holder saw and misinterpreted the same scene, and decided to come to the rescue. At first glance, it would appear that a crime was in progress and that there was sufficient justification to use deadly force against the apparent “bad actor” (pun intended), but if a CCW holder HAD mistakenly used force, it would’ve been an unlimited supply of red meat for the anti-CCW crowd. This story really highlights how a well meaning CCW could really mess things up by getting involved in something he didn’t understand. To anyone who says that there is a moral obligation to step in when you see a crime in progress, take a minute to look at this situation and imagine how things could’ve gone terribly wrong for all involved.

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