SWAT TEAM: Sleeping Man with Gun-Like Phone Case Shuts Down Shopping Center

ALHAMBRA, CA -- A nightshift worker, who fell asleep with gun-like cell phone case in his lap, prompted the SWAT team to shut down portions of a busy shopping center Friday.

A shopper, who saw the man conked out in his SUV at about 12:30 p.m. in the parking lot of a Toy 'R Us, Party City and Albertsons market, called 911 thinking the man was suffering a medical emergency, according to Alhambra police.

When paramedics arrived at the center at Fremont and Commonwealth avenues, they saw the cell phone case and thought it was a gun in his lap. So police and then a sheriff's SWAT team was summoned, according to Alhambra police Sgt. Jerry Johnson.

People at stores in the shopping center were told to shelter in place while officers investigated, but there efforts to wake him were of no avail for hours. They banged on the SUV's windows, blared sirens and even blew an air horn to try and wake the dozing man, all to no avail, Johnson said.

Johnson said the man's family was contacted based on the registered owner of the vehicle and told investigators about the man's job and he that didn't own a gun, but had a cell phone case that looked like a firearm.

Still, officers remained cautious until the man woke up and exited the vehicle.

The cell phone case bore a striking resemblance to a real firearm, Johnson said.

"It looks like it could be a gun, no question about it," he said.

While the drama played out, people stuck in the shopping center took to social media.

"Some of us are stuck in Party City for safety. We are not allowed to leave," Paulina Shull wrote on Facebook.

"My sister is stuck inside Albertsons," Sue Hweamel posted.

Another woman wrote, "Yes, I am now locked in the market and cannot leave until they get the guy with a gun."

Around 2:35 p.m. a sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau team got him to wake up and exit the vehicle.

He obeyed commands and was briefly detained and questioned, but once it was determined that he was a graveyard shift worker who stopped at the center to buy something only to fall asleep in his SUV with the gun-like cell phone case in his lap, he was sent on his way.

City News Service contributed to this report.