An Australian lawyer living in the US claims she was ‘almost arrested’ when two police officers mistakenly thought her portable camera tripod from Kmart was a gun.
Monique, from , was ‘mortified’ by the awkward encounter and had the $9 product tucked inside her pants but hidden under her shirt.
The 29-year-old switched Australia for Cleveland to be with resorts casino online, it’s my first time there, I sign in with my Australian passport and I’m chatting to the people, saying, “I’m new to the city”.’
Once she signed her detailed, she looked around the casino.
Pictured: the Kmart tripod
‘I’m walking around for like one to two minutes, having a look around. I thought, ‘I’ll just grab my Starbucks and I’m going to explore my city a little bit’,’ she recalled.
‘Anyway, I’m walking around and I get approached by two police officers. They’re like, “Excuse me ma’am, we have a reason to believe that you’re concealing a weapon”.
‘I’m like, “Me? A weapon?” I was like, “Look at the size of my bag, it’s teeny tiny, there’s no way I’m concealing a weapon. What do you mean?”
Monique accepted the fact that ‘this is America’ and allowed the police officers to conduct a ‘search’.
She then, without saying a word, looked at the camera and lifted up her top to expose the tripod.
‘Guys, (it was) my camera tripod. Oh my god. They thought it was a gun,’ Monique said and extended the product to show what it was.