Craddock had been arrested in the Sardinian port city of Olbia in June 2018 after trying to board a private party bus with a collectible flamethrower from Elon Musk’s latest startup, The Boring Company.

When Craddock managed to get a lawyer, she told him the judge would probably just let him go with a warning.

He opened it and five police officers barged in wearing tasers and tactical gear.

The police officers sat Richardson down on his sofa and informed him that they had a warrant to search the premises.

Craddock and Richardson are not the only Boring Company customers to have fallen foul of law enforcement.

More than 1,000 flamethrower purchasers abroad have had their devices confiscated by customs officers or local police, with many facing fines and weapons charges.

The upshot: What Musk and his army of fans thought was just another of his money-spinning larks is having real-world consequences for people and countries not in on the joke.

The Boring Company did not respond to detailed questions from TechCrunch for this story.

Musk raised $1 million just weeks after launching sales of a $20 Boring Company hat.

But with its rifle-style stock, pistol grip and sci-fi styling, the Boring Company’s flamethrower had a very different aesthetic — more post-apocalyptic party accessory than everyday yard maintenance.

The Boring Company would make 20,000 flamethrowers and sell them at $500 each, netting the young company $10 million.

“There has been a debate as to whether these are firearms,” one of the Viper officers wrote in an email to Richardson.

A YouTube vlogger in Manchester was targeted by police after featuring the Boring Company’s gadget in one of his videos, while up to 1,000 purchasers in Switzerland had devices confiscated and were issued fines.

But in June 2019, a Democratic lawmaker in the New York State Senate introduced a bill that would criminalize owning and using Musk’s flamethrower.

“Elon Musk’s Boring Company released a new flamethrower… without any concern to the training of the purchasers or their reasons for buying,” reads S1637.

One of the officers noticed what he thought was a rifle hidden beneath a seat — actually a Boring Company flamethrower.

The same month, FBI agents executing a search warrant against a Pennsylvania man, Brandon Althof Long, stumbled across his Boring Company flamethrower propped against a wall.

The agents seized the flamethrower out of concern for their safety, which a U.S.

“Other individuals could be located inside the house and the flamethrower could have been used to endanger officers as they retreated from Long’s home,” she wrote.

For all Musk’s portrayal of the Not a Flamethrower as just an entertaining toy, police forces — and criminals — in North America are increasingly treating them as dangerous weapons.

Among the cocaine, pistols and assault rifles prominently displayed in the traditional seizure photo was a Boring Company flamethrower.

Guelph Police Service lays out items seized including Not a Flamethrower, the novelty item sold by The Boring Company.

John Richardson eventually got his Not a Flamethrower back from the Metropolitan police