(NEXSTAR) – An attorney from Texas was issued a citation on Monday after dressing up like Michael Myers from the “Halloween” franchise — complete with a bloody-looking prop knife — and taking a stroll along the beach ahead of Tropical Storm Nicholas.
“I did it for the people, the tourists who are stuck down here,” said Mark Metzger III, the Galveston-area attorney who was detained by police during Monday’s stunt. “They honestly weren’t expecting a tropical storm to pop up, but they’re stuck here in their hotels… so [I] kinda thought, maybe they can get a laugh.”
The Galveston Police Department, however, said they received a call from an onlooker who was concerned by the sight of a masked man strolling the beach. Officers arrived shortly afterward and determined the knife and blood were fake, but cited Metzger for disorderly conduct, he said.
Police had also briefly placed Metzger in handcuffs, as seen in a photo taken by a witness.
“I think it was a ridiculous citation,” Metzger said. “But I think their hands were tied, and I understand they had a job to do. I’m respectful of that.”
Metzger, meanwhile, says he often stages silly pranks in the area, even attending the city’s Fourth of July parade dressed as Michael Myers. He also organizes his “floatilla” of unicorn pool toys to float down the downtown streets when rain floods the area.
“[We] give the people trapped in their buildings… something to look out of the window and laugh at.”
On Instagram, Metzger hinted that the citation would do little to deter him from staging another stunt and “bringing positive vibes to this gloom and doom world.”
“So if taking a silly walk down the beach during a storm in a costume, and subsequently being arrested for disorderly conduct accomplished any of that … then I’d do it again all day every day,” he wrote online.
And as for the citation itself?
“We have the greatest justice system in the world,” he said. “We’ll let the courts figure it out… Cooler heads will prevail.”