A group of people held downtown Fernandina Beach, Fla., hostage Thursday night, reported the local weekly newspaper.

That group of people was the local SWAT team.

On Thursday night, students from the local high school were filming a movie in the basement of the post office in the downtown historic district. Postmaster Ronald Steedley not only gave permission for the post office to be used for the movie shoot, he was present and watching that fateful night.

A witness saw one of the students entering the post office carrying a toy assault rifle and called 911, according to police Lt. Jim Coe. “We can’t hesitate in a situation like that and automatically set up a perimeter around the building.”

So, of course, the SWAT team comes out, surrounds the post office, and goes in with real assault rifles, taking the moviemakers hostage over the postmaster’s protests, and providing an unexpected show for downtown residents and tourists.

“I thought I could tell them who I was and they would calm down, but it didn’t work,” Steedley told theNews-Leader. “It’s amazing how a chain of events could get so out of hand.”

The students, who had been filming an interrogation scene for a movie they were making over their spring break using toy assault rifles, were held for over an hour.

According to the Associated Press, student Devon Menendez, who directed the movie, has decided his film career is over. “I’m not accepting any more offers to direct a movie,” he told the AP.

Coe said that the case would be referred to the state Attorney General’s office and they would decide whether to file charges.

Unfortunately, there’s no law against sending a SWAT team to break up a bunch of high school students trying to make a movie. The movie is due in class Monday, and it’s not clear after this setback whether they will finish it by then.

One might ask why a tiny island town of 11,000, located on historic Amelia Island, would need a SWAT team. As it turns out, the island is known as the Isle of Eight Flags, because eight different flags have flown over the island as various nations have wrested control of it. Perhaps they’re trying to prevent a ninth flag from going up.