This is not the first such incident I've heard of...mundane items being mistaken for guns by members of our emasculated culture. And I agree with Pandora, the little bonus line stating that der Polizei have, most graciously, decided not to charge this man for his non-commission of a non-crime is itself a telling little detail. Shades of authoritarianism run amok.
I'm afraid many of our "public servants" are picking the wrong side of a growing divide.