Story Archive

Disarming

Michael Smith works nights, and was rudely awakened by a tree trimmer at 10:00 a.m. Smith went outside his Norridgewock, Maine, home shirtless to tell the company to leave. He went back to bed, but minutes later the Maine State Police and state troopers surrounded the house and, over a megaphone, told him to come out, and make no sudden moves. That was his second rude awakening of the day, but Smith did what he was told. “I got plans today,” Smith said later. “I didn’t want to get shot.” Sure enough, as reported by the tree trimmer, Smith had “a gun” — tattooed on his belly. “Obviously it was a misunderstanding and he didn’t have a weapon,” a trooper said, “but he was yelling and they thought it could be some sort of a threat.” But because Smith clearly wasn’t trying to use the “gun” as a threat (“he wasn’t pointing to his gun or anything like that,” the trooper said), he wasn’t charged. (RC/Skowhegan Morning Sentinel) ...Right. To point that gun, he needs to drop his pants and bend over.