Ren Faire Armed Robery!

[Winged Mermaid]

This terrible, but also just too funny not to share. To me, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened!

Ren Faire Armored Robbery of the Day
Monday morning, a band of armor-clad brigands held up the main tent of a renaissance faire at sword-point, making off with around $25,000. In the town of Bitche, France.

Yes, you read all of that correctly. The robbers are still at large, presumably spending their gold on ale and wenches.

Nerds in tights robbed by thieves in tights at medieval festival

They say you should dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have. So, if you want to be a medieval thief, dress like a medieval thief, especially if your plan is to rob one of the largest medieval festivals in Europe. Three or four individuals in knight costumes stole almost $25,000 from the organizers of the Médiévales Européennes de Bitche, trying to tie one festival employee up before hitting another with an ax handle (not with a big-ass turkey leg?) and making off with the cash. With an estimated 11,000 attendees — most of them in their finest chain-mail ensembles — how do you track down the costume-clad robbers? What a bitche.

Source.

[Blondie]

Aggggrrhhhh peeoplleeee I hate peeeopleeeee!!!

Can't do anything anymore with out worrying about getting held up. Movies are dangerous, Ren Faires are unsafe, hell you can't even sleep at night with out worrying someone will bust into your house...

[MerAnthony]

Well if your worried about somebody breaking into your house get a BIG dog and let the dog do the work.

[Winged Mermaid]

Don't let fear control you. Be prepared yes, but don't let it own you. Screw a dog- I have a shotgun under my bed. I don't have to worry when my husband goes out to sea and I'm at home alone. I carry a legal knife in my purse and pepper spray on my keychain. My sister has a concealed weapon permit and carries a gun with her sometimes. She's had very sick stalkers before so she has good reason. I'm contemplating getting mine for when I need to the weekends in Seattle for school. Self defense classes couldn't hurt either. Be prepared, not controlled

But seriously, if that had been an SCA event, that would have gone down completely different. People in SCA train for actual fighting- from swords to hand to hand combat. They hold tourneys, even. Just saying.

[Lyna]

wow. that is redonculous. the renn faire is suppose to be a happy peaceful place for getting together and sharing history and excitement for tradition (and cosplay) and having walk abouts, meeting new people, shopping, dressing up, shopping....

[Mermaid Saphira]

Well if your worried about somebody breaking into your house get a BIG dog and let the dog do the work.

I have a BIG dog...shes lazy LOL

[Kanti]

Wow! That's actually pretty funny. That's so mean, though. It's sort of depressing that they came
dressed up so one would assume they're obviously into ren-faires, yet they're stealing from the place
and possibly going to make it more shitty in the future. Who knows, they might decide to start banning
weapons altogether.
I doubt I'd ever have a stunt like that at the renassaince fairs around here. They always have cops
patrolling around, with GUNS. So I guess someone could try it out, but they'd need a bunch of people
and guns to do anything, and that would be really damn scary o_o

And damn, Winged, you're packing xD
I have a knife, that's about it, I'm too chicken to shoot off a gun but my boyfriend is trying to teach
me for that same reason. A concealed weapons license is probably good too, I guess it just depends
where you live and how badly you need it. It's just impossible to tell if someone's going to decide to
mug you, if they're going to have a knife or a gun, etc. Scary, but you can at least be prepared too!

[Spindrift]

I shot an AK-47 in Vietnam and that's all I have to brag about - weapon wise. :|

[Lyna]

teeeeechnicalllyyyy it's an m16. it's a ak in the civilian world and barely altered.

[Capt Nemo]

You mean AR. It's trigger mechanism is modified to fire semi auto only. It takes 6 parts to convert along with machining of the reciever, and possession of an AR-15 and any of those parts will get you 10 years and a $10,000 fine!

My collection

AR-15 SP1 w 37mm smoothbore M203
Mini-14
10/22
Type 56 AKS
UZI
M-11/9
PT-92

[Azurin Luna]

It seems to be so easy to get a gun in the USA, here in the Netherlands you have to be screened and you may only carry it when you go to the shooting range. You may never carry it on you all the time, unless you are a cop of course.

[Elle]

In Australia it's only the police and farmers who have guns. and even then the police are only allowed to use the gun as a last resort, it's always pepper spray, taser, gun.
Farmers have them for dingos and roos.
It's illegal to carry a weapon on your person, I'm not aware of any license to permit it. I don't actually know anyone personally who owns a gun.

I don't carry anything on myself for protection, even when I worked nights at clubs in town and on the coast. I always walked home and nothing ever happened.

[AniaR]

In Canada I'm sure on paper lots of people have guns, but I see mostly hunting guns. Because my dad had guns in the house as a hunter he made me take my FAC (fire arms course) when I was a growing up so I understood they weren't toys and had a healthy respect for them. Outside of the course, all I've ever done with a firearm is shoot at a target. It's not really my thing, but I'm still glad my dad made me take the course. It really did give me a good understanding and a respect for them.

The course is fairly elaborate, and at the time it was all you needed to own a firearm. To be fair, I feel that it covers everything. After the columbine shooting legislation was pushed through to put more laws on guns in Canada- despite the fact that our fire arm related crimes and deaths are much lower than the other places. (Bowling for Columbine does an excellent job of pointing this out) Now you need your FAC, you need to register your gun separately, your gun has to be stored in a different place than the ammo, everything separately is supposed to be stored in locked boxes. I think there are a few other stipulations as well if it's not a hunting gun. Hunters were pretty pissed at first but now everyone's pretty much used to it.

[Alveric]

It varies from state to state and even between cities here in the U.S. In New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. for example, the restrictions are about as strong as in Europe or Australia. Here in Kentucky (which has a much lower crime rate by the way) you only need a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

I have a license and have carried a pistol for years. Never had to use it or even draw it, but it's nice to know it's there.

[Elle]

You can get a permit to own a gun, but you can only use it in a firing range. And there is the whole you have to keep them in a secure, fireproof cabinet and then you have to keep the ammunition in another fireproof case away from the arms. and then you have to have cases for transit of the firearm.
I think it's just to much effort. unless your family owns a gun range or your a farmer with a roo problem, you wouldn't own one. I don't think there even is a gun store in the city I think it's out in woop-woop

[AniaR]

This is why I like Australia, you have places called "Woop-Woop"

Slightly off topic, but we have funny Canadian locations too. Where I live we have ZigZag Island. LOL

[Elle]

Woop-Woop isn't actually a place , it's a term to describe a place that is in the middle of no where. So if you live in the middle of woop-woop, your out in the middle of no where
Not to say we don't have funny names
Bong Bong, Burrumbuttock, Chinaman's Knob,Cock Wash, Cockburn, Come By Chance, Delicate Nobby, Doo Town, Eggs and Bacon Bay, Humpty Doo, Humpybong, Mount Buggery, Nowhere Else, Pimpinbudgie, Poowong, The End of the World, Tittybong, Upotipotpon, Useless Loop, Wagga Wagga, Wee Waa, Yorkeys Knob

Just to name a few,
(and these are real places, I'm not even kidding.)

[Alveric]

Kentucky's also known for weird names: Monkey's Eyebrow, Lickskillet, Bugtussel, to name a few. I had a cousin who lived in Mousie.

[MerAnthony]

Here in NY you need a permit to own a pistol and a special permit to have it on person. But you do not need a permit or to register a rifle. Also you are allowed to carry a rifle in you truck or car as long it is visable with out a permit.

[michellerobison]

Wow and I thought Intercourse Pennsylvania, Bue Balls and Bird in Hand Pennsylvania were funny,also Hell Michigan...

We travel a lot for art shows and to gem shows so most everyone I know in the business carries... You have to.
Hubby and I both have guns where we can reach them at night. Our dogs are tiny,but many... also have hearing like you wouldn't believe. No one gets close,they hear any tiny little thing... When I lived in Naples,I used to live along a 300 ft lane back into the woods and my dogs would hear the postman at the post box at the end of that driveway... I used to say they could hear a canary "break wind" in Lauderdale...no one snuck up on us...