A man dressed as Marvel’s anti-hero Deadpool was surrounded by police on a Sydney train on Friday on his way to a children’s charity event, after his fellow commuters became concerned with the contents of his bag.
Five police officers, including a sergeant and a constable wearing bulletproof vests, stormed the eastbound Sydney train when it stopped at Blacktown station after they had received distress calls from passengers of a man dressed in a superhero getup and carrying swords, ammunition, grenades and firearms.
The man, Reuben Rose, quickly explained to the surrounding officers after they hauled him off the train that they were all plastic props, part of his Deadpool costume for the national Superhero Week charity drive. He was attempting to raise money for Bear Cottage at Manly, a hospice for children. Reports Gizmodo, he was also carrying a tray of cupcakes.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Rose said he was wearing the costume to his workplace at St Leonards for the day to help convince his workmates to donate to Bear Cottage.
“This is all in fun. I just wanted to raise some money for Bear Cottage.” The 33-year-old father-of-three was let go without being charged. A senior Sydney Trains’ official at Blacktown told The Telegrpah that police told Mr Rose “he was a bit of an idiot” for getting on the train with all the pretend weapons strapped to him.
Rose later took to Facebook to documented his arrest. “It might have been the swords. Or the guns. Or the grenades. Or the bullet belt,” he wrote. “Either way, someone on the train was convinced I was a terrorist in a unitard.”
Bear Cottage spokeswomen Bronwen Simmons told News Corp that Mr Rose had raised “a far bit of money for Bear Cottage in the past” but advised people “to use a little bit of common sense” when picking a costume. Donate at bearcottage.chw.edu.au
