Things got a little crazier than usual on the 71 this afternoon, when a kid in the backseat of one family's minivan reportedly waved a toy gun at another driver.

Perhaps spooked by SoCal's rich history of car-to-car freeway shootings, the potential victim called the Walnut sheriff's station to advise law enforcement…

… of “another motorist brandishing a gun,” according to City News Service.

A little dramatic — but you never know, right? Sergaent R. Causey tells the Weekly that a sheriff's deputy on patrol quickly caught up to the mysterious minivan, sirens a-blaze, and pulled it over “without pursuit” near where the 71 meets the 60.

At which point, of course, the deputy realized that the gun was very much not a gun, but a piece of plastic, and likely felt very much relieved to take home a silly “darndest things” story tonight in place of some near-death standoff drivel.

The four-person family hasn't escaped without a good hard piece of advice from the sheriff, however.

Says Causey, in complete seriousness: “I'm hoping the parents will have a talk with child about waving guns around at people. … As a parent, I hope they admonish their child.”

Harsh. But that's what a little Wild West wannabe gets for wasting the taxpayers' dollar on false alarms to the Walnut sheriff's station. Tsk tsk, for real!

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

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