A report of armed men near an Arkansas elementary school led to a campus lockdown before police confirmed the three were actually pest control employees chasing squirrels.
A teacher at Gardner STEM Magnet School in Hot Springs saw the men about 8 a.m. Wednesday and notified administrators. According to a statement from the Hot Springs Police Department, the teacher said it looked like three men carrying rifles were running toward the school.
Officers determined the men, who were carrying pellet guns, were employees of a pest control company hired to eradicate squirrels at a neighboring apartment complex. Police say the employees fired a shot at a squirrel, missed and chased the squirrel onto school property.
A school employee said the lockdown was lifted after about an hour.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
I’m ashamed to live in a country where people are so paranoid-ignorant and co-dependent about safety that they could misread such a situation so badly.
Why were these men not arrested for having weapons on school property??
If 5th grade boys are expelled for biting pop-tarts into shapes of gun…how do these get off scott-free??
I am in pest control, and we never use pellet guns. We use traps
This seems bizarre. And THREE GUYS?? Really???? . Seems like overkill to me.