It's funny how communication can be such a big problem in the office of a company that's trying to promote a product that's supposed to make communication much easier. Chalk this up to a good idea with a really bad execution. Terrible for Dell and hilarious for the rest of us.
By KXAN in Round Rock, Texas
The Round Rock SWAT team responded to multiple 911 calls of a suspect inside of one of the Dell Round Rock campus buildings on Monday morning, only to find it was a marketing stunt gone wrong.
A person dressed as a biker in all black with a black mask was on the sales floor of Building 1carrying two metallic objects and telling people to "go to the lobby," according to Round Rock Police.
A sales manager set up the stunt as an internal promotional event to celebrate the release of the new Dell Streak tablet, but Round Rock police ended up arresting two people for causing the disturbance, according to RRPD spokesman Eric Poteet.
Round Rock police asked neighboring law enforcement to respond to the Dell campus.
When officers stormed the place, they say one man refused to comply with officers.
"If it wasn't serious enough that elevated it to extreme risk scenario," said Round Rock police spokesperson Eric Poteet.
But 11 minutes into the situation police determined the masked man and another man were part of an in house marketing plan but told nobody about it.
"Through a series of misinterpretation, miscommunication this sent a lot of others into a controlled panic," said Poteet.
Police arrested the man dressed in the skull mask and biker outfit, 48 year old Bryan Chester and his supervisor 36 year old Daniel Rawson. Both face misdemeanor charges of Interfering with Public Duties and Deadly Conduct.
Officers say Chester was not carrying weapons but rather small metallic items when he yelled for people to go to the lobby.
"All this was intended to be was go to the lobby because we're introducing a new item," said Poteet.
Dell Spokesman, David Frink, declined our request for an on camera interview but by phone told us the incident was "an unfortunate choice" by a Dell employee. He also said they are very thankful Round Rock police responded as quickly as they did and nobody was hurt.
The spokesman would not say what the new product was but a source inside dell says it was for the new Dell Streak tablet which can interface with Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.
Police say it's a miracle none of the 400 people in the building were hurt.
"Think before you act my goodness and when police tell you to do something do it," said Poteet.