Schools in Pennsylvania went under lockdown when the theme song of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" played from a high school student's voicemail was taken as a school threat, reported Beaver County Times Online.
It was a receptionist at an eye doctor's office who called the teen's phone to remind him of an appointment and when he did not pick up, it went straight to voicemail. She immediately called police, who proceeded to contact Ambridge school authorities, saying the receptionist took the song as a shooting threat.
The student, Travis Clawson, 19, went to Ambridge Area High School and sang the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song for his voicemail greeting. When the line from the lyrics "Shooting some b-ball outside of the school," the receptionist thought he said "Shooting people outside of the school."
When the school was notified, they advised a countywide schools lockdown because the location of Clawson was unknown, according to Beaver County Times Online. The 911 system notified all the schools in Beaver County.
When the police finally reached out to Clawson later in the day, they took him to the guidance counselor's office and described him as "chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool." Then they team surrounded him and proceeded to bring him into custody.
When the officers reviewed the lyrics, they realized he meant no harm. Clawson was only imitating Will Smith who starred in the 1990s show.
"He was afraid and embarrassed," said Ambridge police officer Mike Natale in an interview with WPXI. "Obviously staff at the doctor's office was embarrassed about the whole thing too."
The Ambridge Area School District Superintendent Erv Weischedel saw the whole procedure as a good practice for a real drill. In the letter he sent home to families he said:
"As always, the safety of our students and staff are at the forefront of our concern," Weischedel said in the letter. "While this situation can be considered to be a false alarm, it was an excellent opportunity to test our emergency procedures. The procedures in place were efficient and quickly implemented and proved to be successful."
