To be held hostage, or not to be held hostage … that was the question in Arcata this afternoon. (Sorry.)

“Respond to the old recycling center [in Arcata] … [responding party] stating a male subject inside the building with a firearm holding several subjects at gunpoint.”

That call went out over the scanner at 4:36 p.m. today. A minute or so later, dispatchers note that six people are being held at the end of a gun. Officers quickly respond to the location and announce they are setting up a perimeter around the building. One officer on scene calls for the street to be blocked off.

Here’s what scanner fans heard around that time:

(AUDIO) Scanner 1

A few tense minutes pass. Some unintelligible exchanges occur. Finally, at 4:41 p.m. we hear…:

(AUDIO) Scanner 2

Yup. “Rehearsal for play.” Calls LoCO made to Arcata Police were not returned, so we don’t know for sure which play was real enough to cause such a ruckus, but it sounds pretty good, right? If we were the speculating types we might point out that Dell’Arte graduate students are staging Mountains of the Forgotten tonight in the area. The following is a bit of the synopsis from the production’s Lowdown listing:

“… a contemporary exploration of tragedy that evokes the helpless, raging scream of a community so infected by fear that it destroys itself.”

Might be worth checking out! We hear the acting is top-notch!

Above: Mad River Union was on the scene and posted to Facebook.