Police Seize Boffers at G-20

The Toronto police aren’t messing around. According to the The Globe and Mail, while providing security for the G-20 summit, the cops have nabbed all sorts of weaponry, from baseball bats and crowbars to boffers, yes boffers, the foam-covered arrows, clubs, and shields that LARPers use for combat. You know, weapons that are designed NOT to hurt anyone.

Police Chief Bill Blair said the boffer arrows, made by replacing the pointy tip of an arrow with fabric-covered foam, could have been dipped in flammable liquid and then shot, but acknowledged that the gear was unrelated to the protests. The police have released the LARPer in question, Brian Barrett, 25, who was en route to an Amtguard game but kept his gear, which includes a rather nice-looking scale mail tunic. Barrett said that he was “appalled” to see his armor displayed alongside a machete and said he hoped the incident wouldn’t cause people to associate LARPers with “the terrorists from G-20.”

Read the whole story, and see pictures of the gear over at The Globe and Mail.

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