Two replica guns almost landed a pair of Cobourg, Ont. residents in real trouble when police responded to an emergency call.
On Sunday, Cobourg police received a call around 10 p.m. that a man had been seen running between homes with what appeared to be a handgun.
Officers responded to the area and found two young men, 18 and 20-years-old, with what appeared to be semi-automatic handguns.
Drawing his service weapon, an officer ordered the men to the ground.
When police seized the weapons, they discovered the guns to be nearly exact replicas of service weapons carried by police.
"It has Smith & Wesson stampings," Cobourg Police Sgt. Peter McLean said. "There is very, very little difference."
The main difference was that the replica weapons could only shoot pellets and not bullets. But to a police officer responding to a nighttime call, the pellet guns looked genuine.
"It's amazing that there are manufacturers that would produce these types of weapons," McLean said.
The young men were safely taken to their parents and "cautioned about their actions and the potential danger" of possessing the replicas, a written statement from Cobourg Police said.
"Both young men were very, very fortunate," McLean said.
The replica guns were likely purchased over the Internet. Cobourg Police seized the fake weapons for destruction.
With a report from CTV's Dave Sommer
