Man arrested at gunpoint after police mistake his MP3 player for a gun

Armed police held an innocent mechanic at gunpoint when they mistook his MP3 player for a pistol. Darren Nixon, 28, was arrested and put in police cell for simply listening to music on his way home from work. The shocked garage worker was then swabbed for a DNA sample, had his mugshot taken and was fingerprinted.The armed officers swooped on Mr Nixon when a woman thought she saw him carrying a handgun and called the police.Mr Nixon, from Stoke-on-Trent, has now received an apology from Staffordshire Police but said the mistake was still a “stain on his character”.

He had finished work at midday on Saturday (Jan 26), turned on his black 4GB Phillips MP3 player and started walking to get the bus home.

Mr Nixon, a mechanic for Olympus Engineering, who has no previous convictions, said: “I walked to the bus station.

“Obviously I didn’t know this at the time but someone saw my MP3 player in my pocket and mistook it for a gun.

“The police found me on CCTV and followed me. I got on the bus and the police followed. I was listening to my music so I didn’t really notice all the cars behind the bus.