A Masked Couple Creeped the Shit Out of Auckland, New Zealand, Yesterday

A group of New Zealand film students got their assignment handed to them on a platter yesterday when they captured footage of a creepy masked couple near their school. The video shows a young male and female in matching white masks staring ominously into the camera.

Student Chris Muir and his friends spotted the pair in the tall grass at Parnell Railway Station in Auckland while mucking around outside the classroom. The group thought they were innocent pranksters from the school until they realized the pair were holding guns. And then the couple began following them.

"I was totally confused," Chris told VICE. "I had no clue what to think other than to back away." Chris said he saw a police chopper in the area after he and his friends ran back to the school. Police spokesperson Noreen Hegarty later confirmed that the couple were holding imitation firearms but said that police would always treat such cases as real until proven otherwise. Nobody was hurt in the incident. In a statement on its Facebook page, the Auckland police department wrote, "When police are notified of people carrying and displaying weapons in public, we respond with armed officers."

Despite the made-for-internet-virility look of the video, Hegarty said the incident was not a hoax. "The film students accidentally happened upon them," she told VICE. The masked pair had also been reported to police earlier in the week when a woman ran off in fright after seeing them in Auckland's Domain park but it wasn't until yesterday that the duo turned themselves into police. Police today are remaining tight-lipped on what exactly the couple were doing at Parnell. "I can't really go into detail about what they were doing but I doubt they'll be doing it again anytime soon," Hegarty said. "There's still a possibility that they may be charged with some offenses, but I haven't been notified of any charges that have been made so far."

What's believed to be the duo's Facebook page reemerged online today after it was taken down yesterday. The Twins of Atticus fan page, which links to a joke nudie site, has 275 fans and a smattering of low-resolution art-school photos for what looks to be a garage punk band. Our bet is that it's some young'uns getting their kicks rather than any thought-out marketing strategy. Kids these days.

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