Life imitated art in Sherman Oaks this week - rather, life stormed art with guns drawn.
Los Angeles police officers raided the studio of video game developer Robotoki after someone tripped a silent burglary alarm. It looked like a scene from one of the studio's games, not its offices.
A silent burglary alarm summoned officers to the scene in the 15400 block of Ventura Boulevard late Thursday, said LAPD spokesman Detective Gus Villanueva. Officers briefly detained the only person inside - the studio's president, Robert Bowling - until they could confirm his identity.
Inside the studio was a lifelike statue of a "Ghost" military-style video game character from the popular "Call of Duty" series of games. The statue appeared to stare out of the top-floor window of the game studio, a fake assault rifle in hand.
But despite speculation by other news outlets, the patrol officers who checked out the building never suspected the statue was real, Villanueva said.
"The dummy never entered into it," he said. "They realized it wasn't alive, it wasn't a person. In my 35 years on the job, if we search a warehouse or business for a burglar, we always go in with our guns drawn."
NOTE, June, 11, 2013: A video that once apppeared at the top of this article contained inaccurate information and has been taken down.
