I need S.S.'s laughing smiley for this one....
'Mad Max' Fan Convoy Ends in Arrests
WAOI.com | 4/19/2005
It started as an enthusiastic tribute to the popular Mad Max movies, but ended with eleven people jailed. Now people all over the country are talking about it. A scene reenactment by some local 'Road Warriors' had a lot of people spooked.
The 25th anniversary of the release of the second Mad Max film seemed like a great reason for a special celebration. As the group was headed to San Antonio from nearby Boerne on Saturday morning, police received several calls from motorists who reported a "militia" surrounding a tanker truck, a police report states.
Eleven "Mad Max" fans were arrested after alarming motorists as they made their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy in which they surrounded a tanker truck armed with fake machine guns.
Police charged nine people with obstruction of a highway and two others with possession of prohibited knives in addition to obstruction of a highway.
Mad Max fan Chris Fenner collects replica movie costumes, t-shirts, the film's special police badges, and even has one of the stars signature on his motorcycle. His Mad Max looking motorcycle is autographed by star Vernon Wells. Fenner organized what ended up being a convoy to a Mad Max festival that scared a lot of people.
Fenner says the arrests were unfair. He said he didn't know why anyone would have confused the costumed crew recreating a scene from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" - set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland - with a real threat.
"I honestly don't know how that could be, because 'Road Warrior' was so over the top," he said.
About 25 people participated in the convoy and more than twice that number were expected to attend the movie marathon, which was canceled after the arrests.
Since it is a movie based around... some of it's based around cars and motorcycles... stuff like that, we thought it would be nice to meet somewhere and then drive down there, explained Fenner.
Innocent enough, but it ended up looking a lot like a scene from the movie with fans dressed like the characters, chasing a tanker truck.
It was way too real for a lot of drivers near 151 and 410. Police say they were swamped by phone calls from folks saying they were seeing a tanker truck being hijacked by gunmen.
People were freaking out, San Antonio Police spokesman Joe Rios told WOAI. They see these guys with machine guns, they're getting on their cell phones, exiting the highway.
Police say the guns were fake, but some of the knives were real. The convoy arrived at this west side movie theater, where the festival ended up being cancelled.
Chris isn't sorry he did it, but he would do it differently.
To me what we were doing wasn't so crazy, I think the response was crazy, he said.
'Mad Max' Fan Convoy Ends in Arrests
WAOI.com | 4/19/2005
It started as an enthusiastic tribute to the popular Mad Max movies, but ended with eleven people jailed. Now people all over the country are talking about it. A scene reenactment by some local 'Road Warriors' had a lot of people spooked.
The 25th anniversary of the release of the second Mad Max film seemed like a great reason for a special celebration. As the group was headed to San Antonio from nearby Boerne on Saturday morning, police received several calls from motorists who reported a "militia" surrounding a tanker truck, a police report states.
Eleven "Mad Max" fans were arrested after alarming motorists as they made their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy in which they surrounded a tanker truck armed with fake machine guns.
Police charged nine people with obstruction of a highway and two others with possession of prohibited knives in addition to obstruction of a highway.
Mad Max fan Chris Fenner collects replica movie costumes, t-shirts, the film's special police badges, and even has one of the stars signature on his motorcycle. His Mad Max looking motorcycle is autographed by star Vernon Wells. Fenner organized what ended up being a convoy to a Mad Max festival that scared a lot of people.
Fenner says the arrests were unfair. He said he didn't know why anyone would have confused the costumed crew recreating a scene from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" - set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland - with a real threat.
"I honestly don't know how that could be, because 'Road Warrior' was so over the top," he said.
About 25 people participated in the convoy and more than twice that number were expected to attend the movie marathon, which was canceled after the arrests.
Since it is a movie based around... some of it's based around cars and motorcycles... stuff like that, we thought it would be nice to meet somewhere and then drive down there, explained Fenner.
Innocent enough, but it ended up looking a lot like a scene from the movie with fans dressed like the characters, chasing a tanker truck.
It was way too real for a lot of drivers near 151 and 410. Police say they were swamped by phone calls from folks saying they were seeing a tanker truck being hijacked by gunmen.
People were freaking out, San Antonio Police spokesman Joe Rios told WOAI. They see these guys with machine guns, they're getting on their cell phones, exiting the highway.
Police say the guns were fake, but some of the knives were real. The convoy arrived at this west side movie theater, where the festival ended up being cancelled.
Chris isn't sorry he did it, but he would do it differently.
To me what we were doing wasn't so crazy, I think the response was crazy, he said.
