Why Did Unidentified West Des Moines Man Allegedly Take Kids' Airsoft Guns?

The mother of a 10-year-old West Des Moines youth told police Sunday that an unknown male took her son’s airsoft hobby guns after a stray plastic BB allegedly hit the man’s niece as a group of kids played in an apartment complex at 8602 Westown Parkway.

Airsoft guns shoot 6mm round pellest that travel at speeds much lower than real bullets. The web site Hobby Tron, which sells airsoft guns, says it’s “a bit painful” to be hit by one of the pellets, but “they cannot kill someone nor cause heavy-bleeding injuries unlike real guns.”

The boy’s mother told West Des Moines Police Officer Amanda St. George that she didn’t know the man’s name, but was given a phone number to speak with him. He refused to return the guns, one a rifle and the other a pistol.

In her report, St. George said she talked with the children, advising them of the possible outcomes of shooting people who were not part of their games with airsoft guns and  the possible outcomes of playing in their apartment complex with realistic-looking toy guns easily mistaken for more deadly weaponry.