Early Tuesday morning, Metta World Peace was awakened to a bizarre scenario.

“I’m in my underwear and my son says, ‘Hey dad, there’s police at the door,’” World Peace said in an interview with The Times after the Lakers beat the Boston Celtics on Wednesday evening. “So I jump out, I’m nervous. I see these police with rifles and scopes.


“I’m like, ‘What happened?’ I don’t know what’s going on at this point. ‘What happened, what happened?’ And then the police was like, ‘The building is being taken over by guys downstairs.’”

Apparently the guys downstairs were three actors in a movie that World Peace’s company, Artest Media Group, is producing about life on the streets.


Unbeknownst to World Peace, the actors, one of whom World Peace says is his nephew, had decided to rehearse a scene outside of his Westside condo complex the previous evening with a fake shotgun and two fake 9-millimeter guns as props. After the actors finished the scene, they then decided to play with the guns in front of the valet at World Peace’s condo complex.

The cops were called around midnight, as TMZ first reported Tuesday.


When the police arrived, they handcuffed the actors and the director of the movie. World Peace’s younger brother, Isaiah, heard the ruckus and went downstairs to investigate, but he apparently didn’t have identification on him, and the police handcuffed him, too.

The men explained the situation to the police, who then knocked on World Peace’s door to verify their story.


“At first when I seen the police, I was like, ‘What the hell is going on?” World Peace said. “I just got finished watching ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ or whatever that movie is. I’m like, ‘I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming. Is there a terrorist in the building? Do y’all need my help?’”

After a brief conversation with the police, World Peace put on his Cookie Monster pajamas and accompanied them outside.


World Peace was shocked by what he saw.

“Like 20 cops’ cars are outside, like 10 more police,” he said. “My brother had his hands behind his back and [there were] helicopters. The whole Wilshire [Blvd.] was shut down. The street shut down. No cars nowhere.”


World Peace said that once the police realized that the suspects were actors, and that their guns were BB guns, the mood lightened.

“The police was laughing,” he said. “It was funny but it was irresponsible on the actors’ part because you do the scene and that’s it. They didn’t understand that after you do the scene, you put the stuff away.”


World Peace didn’t get much sleep that night after the cops left — but apparently the disaster was not all for naught.

“The scene was great and we’re going use it,” World Peace said. “Not that exact scene; we’re going to re-shoot it.”


Maybe the next time around, there won’t be any cop cars in the background.

melissa.rohlin@latimes.com