'We Told You So:' Gun-Shaped iPhone Case Sparks Armed Response, Prosecutor's Office Says

The handgun-shaped cell phone case that the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office warned in June was invitation to danger caused a heavily armed response from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada last weekend, according to a report.

Mounties carrying rifles and Tasers swarmed a crowded beach in Grand Beach, Manitoba, on Sunday afternoon after receiving a report of a man carrying a gun, according to the Winnipeg Sun.

They found the 34-year-old man sitting quietly on the beach surrounded by his family, the Sun report said, and quickly realized the “gun” in the man’s waistband was actually an iPhone case.

RMCP spokesperson Sgt. Bert Paquet told the Sun Mounties had no choice but to respond the way they did, based on the assumption that the weapon was real and posed real safety risks.

The news site the Inquistr picked up the report and noted that the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office had warned about just such a reaction in a June Facebook post that was shared nearly 15,000 times.

“Please folks - this cell phone case is not a cool product or a good idea,” Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, wrote in that post. “A police officer’s job is hard enough, without having to make a split second decision in the dark of night when someone decides without thinking to pull this out while stopped for a motor vehicle violation.”

“Well, hate to say we told you so, but ’We told you so,’ ” Della Fave wrote Thursday in a follow-up post. “The only redeeming things to come out of this event is that 1. Thank God it did not end in a tragedy, 2. Hopefully it will serve to highlight how truly unwise it is to use this product.”

The Inquisitr article notes Sen. Chuck Schumer from New York has been pressuring Amazon and eBay to stop selling the cases. EBay said it would stop selling the cases in July, according to the Winnipeg Sun.

“Change one element of this event and the end results could have taken an awful turn,” Della Fave said. “In this case daylight hours for improved visibility and the presence of the man’s family contributed to a happy ending. Most favorable is the man learning a valuable lesson in common sense.”