Police Called On Ohio Man Because Someone Mistook His Bassoon For A Rifle

A 22-year-old bassoonist was in a church parking lot in the town of Springfield, sitting on his trunk and playing scales while waiting for a rehearsal to start, when he was slowly approached by police wearing bulletproof vests. It seems a nearby citizen, worried by mass shootings in the news and unfamiliar with large double-reed instruments, had called 911. Said the young man, “In the right kind of light, it looks like a bazooka, but I don’t think it was the right kind of light.” (Again, one shudders to think how this might have played out in Florida.)