Police called to stop man with gun find something very different
A man approached by police who thought he had a gun was in fact playing his bassoon.
Someone called emergency services to report a man sitting on a car with a weapon in Springfield in Ohio, America, on April 5.
But when officers arrived at the scene, they found musician Eric Barga, 22, playing some scales on his bassoon.
He had driven to Covenant Presbyterian Church after teaching at his old school, Kenton Ride High School.
Because he was 30 minutes early for bell choir practice, he took out his custom-made Fox 610 red maple bassoon, then sat on the boot of his car to play it.
Springfield Police received a call seven minutes later to say there was a white male in a jacket and jeans outside a church holding what looked like a long rifle.
Two police vehicles arrived on the scene five minutes later.
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“They didn’t immediately approach me,” Mr Barga told Springfield News.
“I saw a big police van roll up really slowly. I wasn’t concerned that I was doing anything wrong.”
At first, he thought someone had complained to the police about the noise he had been making by playing his instrument.
“In the right kind of light, it looks like a bazooka. But I don’t think it was the right kind of light.
“At this point, I realise they’re confronting me. I put on a little dopey smile and said, ‘Did somebody call the cops on me?’
“I didn’t really feel threatened. I don’t get nervous. Years of music school (performance) beats that out of you.”
As officers approached, they realised he was holding a bassoon, not a rifle, and started to laugh. Mr Barga even played some of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto for the officers before they left him to practice.
