Cops arrest vigilante ninja nerds
12:00 AEST Fri Aug 22 2008
8 hours 59 minutes ago
'Shinobi Warrior' Jesse Trojaniak demonstrates his ninja technique. (WCBSTV)'Shinobi Warrior' Jesse Trojaniak demonstrates his ninja technique. (WCBSTV)
'Shinobi Warrior' Jesse Trojaniak demonstrates his ninja technique. (WCBSTV)
By ninemsn staff
They aimed to rid their neighbourhood of drug dealers using stealth, "merciful" force and a cache of deadly weapons.
But two would-be ninjas who dubbed themselves "Shinobi Warriors" have instead been arrested and charged.
Police found the men, 19-year-old Jesse Trojaniak and 20-year-old Tadieusz Tertkiewicz, lurking in a car next to a highway in Clifton, New Jersey, on Wednesday morning, the Clifton Journal reported.
The pair was dressed in black, wearing protective vests and had a cache of weapons in the car, including ninja throwing stars, swords, bows, arrows and nunchucks.
They told police they were on their way to deliver a warning to drug dealers and users in the neighbourhood.
Inside the car were five letters decorated in Chinese designs and containing letters threatening to stop the "cruel and sadistic intentions" of dealers with "justified, yet merciful force".
"The wind guides us to those of impure heart and intent," the letter read.
Both men were charged with weapons possession and Tertkiewicz was also charged with harassment for delivering a similar letter to his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend.
Trojaniak told WCBSTV in New York that the cache of weapons was intended to scare the drug dealers.
"Those weapons, they were just for show, they were just there to make us look as ninja as possible," he said.
"I would never do anything like this again."
22 Aug 2008, 6:00 am
