Stormtrooper arrested for loitering too close to school

Students in Lynn, Massachusetts, were surprised by a man dressed as a Stormtrooper outside their school on Wednesday, and the man is now facing charges. A man dressed up in an elaborate Star Wars Stormtrooper costume, complete with a black toy laser gun, appeared on the sidewalk outside the Brickett Elementary School moments before the school was about to release.

"I honestly opened my screen window, stuck my head out the window, and I was just like, 'wow,'" Jami Kelly, a concerned parent. With no clue who the man was or whether the gun was real, the principal delayed dismissal until police arrived on the scene, unmasked the masked crusader, arrested him, and placed him in a police cruiser.
George Cross, 40, of Lynn, was arraigned on charges of disturbing a school in addition to violating a city ordinance of loitering within 1,000 feet of a school. "I bought a costume, I was walking through the neighborhood showing friends, and then all that," said Cross as he left the courthouse.

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"We just can't have things like that taking place in front of the school," said Lt. Rick Donnelly of the Lynn Police Department. Police were not amused by Cross' costume caper, and neither were parents - especially, they said, in this day and age. "What if it was just like a thing saying, 'oh it was for the kids,' but actually it was, like, something bad was going to happen, you never know," said Tanya Dietz.