The dinosaur named "Sue," a 41-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex, is shown on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois in this May 17, 2000 file photo
The dinosaur named "Sue," a 41-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex, is shown on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois in this May 17, 2000 file photo. The 67 million-year-old dinosaur discovered near Faith, South Dakota, was named for Susan Hendrickson, who unearthed the giant creature. The hot question of whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded like birds and mammals or cold blooded like reptiles, fish and amphibians finally has a good answer. Dinosaurs, for eons Earth's dominant land animals until being wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago, were in fact somewhere in between. REUTERS

Fiction can be as scary as reality. Well, at least that is what happened to 16-year-old Alex Stone, a student at Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina, when was arrested and suspended for writing a story wherein he killed a fictional dinosaur with a gun. Though dinosaurs no longer exist on earth, his figment of imagination has landed him in deep trouble.

The student, Alex Stone, was assigned by a teacher to write a story about himself. Stone chose to embellish his story with obviously fictional details, like dinosaurs. But the teacher apparently couldn't bear to see the word "gun", according to NBC-12.

"I killed my neighbour's pet dinosaur, and then in the next status I said I bought the gun to take care of the business," Stone said.

The teacher seeing the mention of "gun" in the story immediately contacted police. The authorities, however, did not find a gun on searching Stone's school bag and locker. Needless to say, they didn't find the remains of the fictitious dinosaur that the student had claimed to have killed in his story either!

When officers quizzed Stone about his status, he said it was a joke. However, Stone was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and was suspended for the rest of the week. A fictional story about killing a dinosaur with an imaginary gun was no laughing matter for the investigation team.

Karen Gray, Alex's mother, thought it would have been better if the student was made to rewrite the story to remove the objectionable phrases simply because dinosaurs have long been extinct. Beyond that, Alex is also not old enough to buy a gun. Gray also expressed anger that the school did not contact her before Alex was arrested.

Stone's mother said that they both are aware of the sensitive nature of the theme he selected for his story but was surprised at the over reaction of the school authorities while handling the matter.