[circlecity]

"Speaking of nutcase vibe, what kind of 40-year-old man decides to dress up in a Star Wars costume and hang around an elementary school?"

Exactly my point. That would send alarm bells ringing for me much more than someone who just happened to be walking down the street with a holstered or concealed sidearm. (assuming the jurisdiction allows open and/or concealed carry)

[petitfour]

Or visit a children’s hospital! There’s a big group of such where I live. They’re a scary bunch for sure. It’s funny though because the folks in my area make the news for being so cool and for making children smile. But in my area, the school has laser tag at school with scary looking guns. The horror!

[SamAdams76]

I see both sides here. The school definitely overreacted by calling the police instead of sending a faculty member out there to talk to the person first and find out what the deal was. Then the police overreacted by taking the person into custody on some trumped up "1,000-foot loitering" charge when all they should have done was verify his identity, tell him to stop acting like an idiot, and send him on his way.

On the other hand, you might expect some high school kid to pull a prank like this. Not a 40-year-old grown man who should know better and should also have better things going on in his life then to dress up like a character from some cheesy movie.

As for the loitering charge, was anybody else aware that there was a law against "loitering" within 1,000 feet of a school? What other laws like that are out there that we don't even know about? Guess we are a nation of outlaws and we don't even know it.