HOLLYWOOD – There was no escape, even for superhero Mr. Incredible.
“Throw down your heads and get up against the wall!” police in Hollywood shouted at the movie cartoon character from “The Incredibles” and his sidekick, Elmo the Muppet.
Authorities were cracking down on what some people have called a shakedown of Hollywood Boulevard tourists when they arrested the two costumed impersonators along with a third, the dark-hooded character from the slasher movie “Scream.”
Mr. Incredible and Elmo said they were taken into custody at gunpoint and driven in handcuffs by police car to the front of the Kodak Theatre. There they claim they were paraded on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before shocked tourists and other boulevard impersonators.
“We were leaving to get something to eat. We had our heads off and were walking about a block away to our car when they pulled up,” said Barry Stockton, 42, who was dressed as Mr. Incredible, wearing a red superhero costume topped with a huge, cartoonish head.
Donn Harper, 45, said he complied, tossing his bug-eyed, furry red Elmo costume head to the ground. “They jumped out of their car with guns drawn. With all of the crime in Los Angeles, they pick on us?”
Stockton, of Ontario, Calif., and Harper, of Los Angeles, were charged with misdemeanor “aggressive begging” along with the “Scream” character, Bill Stevens, 54, of Hollywood. Police said the three were among those who had been warned that authorities were preparing to respond to growing complaints from boulevard visitors and merchants about the Tinseltown impersonators.
Some tourists have said they were harassed for failing to pay the costumed characters for posing for photos with them in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the nearby Kodak Theatre. Some merchants have grumbled that the impersonators were scaring customers with menacing costumes, fake weapons and props such as phony snakes.
Last Wednesday’s arrests occurred following a sting operation conducted by a pair of undercover officers pretending to be French tourists who didn’t understand English or the American tipping culture.
“One of them asked how much I charge, and I said we work for tips. She said, ‘Chips?’ I had a dollar bill in my hand and I showed that to her. That was my mistake. When you’re talking to foreigners, you have to show them,” said Harper, who said he makes as much as $400 a day posing for tourist pictures.
Los Angeles police officer Michael Shea said Mr. Incredible and Elmo were brought back to the boulevard so others could see they had been busted. “Make no mistake about it – I wanted the characters to know what we’re doing,” Shea said.
The men were released on $100 bond each.
Los Angeles Times
Elmo impersonator Donn Harper is arrested by police, posing as French tourists, who accused him of soliciting tips on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif.
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