PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. — On April 11th, a group of students in the Cinematography Two class went to Opperman’s Pond to film a scene for the new MCVA movie, “Vanish”. This interesting film concept but poor location scouting caused so much panic that several police departments were on the hunt for an innocent student.

This student was Wesley Brown, who played “Vacuum Dude”, a “throwaway” character who walks around barefoot, wears a hospital gown, and carries a vacuum cleaner to suck people up. The film crew shot Brown walking around campus near Miller Hall. Then, they changed location to the nearby Opperman’s Pond between Bedford Road and Lake Drive.

As Brown started dragging the vacuum up the hill, he received what he described as “the most insane looks” from people driving past him on Bedford Road. To passersby, it was insane. The film crew shot Brown from behind the bushes, out of view from drivers.

“It was kind of, like, a recipe for disaster”, Brown said.

As the crew filmed, multiple 911 calls reported a deranged man wielding a vacuum cleaner walking near the highway. Suddenly, four police cars from different departments across Westchester County came speeding up Bedford Road, searching for this dangerous vacuum man.

“I was like, huh, do you think that’s for us? [Because] I think that’s for us”, said Brown to the film crew.

Upon disassembling their camera equipment and entering their cars, police sirens and lights began to flash in the distance. Mount Pleasant PD, Pleasantville PD, Westchester PD, and two unmarked detective cars pulled into Locust Road, blocking the film crew from leaving.

“Where did he go? Where did the guy in the hospital gown go?”, one of the officers asked.

“Yes Officer, that was me. We’re filming for a Pace University class”, said Brown.

Immediately, the tense atmosphere relaxed. Pleasantville was safe.

Not to let this opportunity pass, Brown plugged the premiere of their film, Vanish, to the police officers, who still wrote down each student’s information before sending them on their way.

When asked about the funniest moment during this encounter, Brown believed it was “probably when [Robert Gehman, student crew member] pulled up the footage from his Tesla, which recorded the entire incident in Sentry Mode,”

“It was a disaster and everyone’s okay. But, it’s cool that they [Pleasantville PD] extended the offer for us to film in town again”, said Brown.