JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri teenager dressed as a machete-wielding madman to advertise for a Halloween store was the one who suffered a big scare.

Joplin police were called Saturday when someone said they saw what they thought was a disturbed person carrying a machete on a city street.

The teenager, whose name was not released, was wearing a mask and brandishing a machete while waving to cars driving by the Spirit of Halloween store.

The Joplin Globe reports that the first police officer on the scene pointed a gun at the teen and ordered him to the ground. Three more officers arrived and quickly determined that the boy was no threat. The machete was plastic.

Rick Henderson, consignment owner of the store, said the boy was not acting strangely. And he says the store had a large banner advertising that it was a Halloween store.