Actors from an episode of NCIS: New Orleans are suing CBS after a 2017 incident while filming led to real trouble with police. Two actors and a jewelry story owner filed a lawsuit alleging the corporation misled them into shooting a realistic "guerilla-style" armed robbery during the day without having the proper permits or informing police and neighbors of the scene, TMZ reports.
CBS filmed the scene at Sol's Jewelry Store in Chalmette in 2017. When neighboring businesses in the strip mall saw men in ski masks carrying assault rifles, they believed the store was actually being robbed and called 911. At least a dozen deputies responded to the scene, approaching the men with weapons drawn.
According to a copy of the lawsuit provided to 4WWL by the plaintiffs attorneys, CBS did not obtain the proper permits prior to filming the scene, nor did they alert surrounding businesses or police that they were staging a fake robbery.
"We were not notified at all," said St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann, who said police believed the robbery to be real. "When I went inside I talked to them, I said, 'This is insane. I don't think y'all realize how close this came for this ending up bad for all involved.'"
"The perils of 'guerilla-style' television and film production are well known in the industry, and that's why we have laws regulating productions," the lawsuit reads in part. It alleges that CBS "flouted" these laws and ended up putting the actors and store owner in "great peril" and nearly "got them killed."
According to Unilad, the actors involved in the scene have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and "continue to experience significant emotional and psychological trauma due to the near-death experience." The owner of the jewelry store has also said he has had fewer customers because word spread of a "robbery" in broad daylight.
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