'Lion King' puppet technician charged with printing 3-D gun in Broadway theater

A puppet technician with 'The Lion King' is charged with printing a 3-D gun inside a Broadway Theater. (AP)

A New York puppet technician with the longtime Broadway musical “The Lion King” was arrested last week after he was found inside a theater prop room manufacturing a 3-D printed gun, authorities said.

Ilya Vett, 47, is charged with attempted possession of a weapon, after he allegedly used a 3-D printer to make a plastic gun inside the Minskoff Theatre, where the musical is playing, The New York Times reported.

Security officers at the theatre found a 3-D printer Friday as it was producing a plastic gun in the property room and called the police.

The New York Daily News reported security found the gun because Vett, 47, was about to lose his job and they were helping him clear out the room.

Disney Theatrical declined to comment on the matter, but an unnamed source told The Times that Vett was no longer employed with the company. The paper said he appears to have been part of “The Lion King” since at least 2008.

According to a criminal complaint, Vett told a detective the printer he used was his and that he had been “making the gun as a gift” for his brother, who lives “upstate and has a firearms license.”

“I brought the 3-D printer in [to the theater] from my workshop because my workshop is too dusty,” Vett told cops, according to the complaint.

“It’s mine … I was making the gun as a gift to my brother,” the complaint said he added.

In the complaint, a New York police officer wrote that he arrived at the theater and saw the printer, with a memory card plugged in, “powered on, moving, and in operation.”

“I observed that the 3-D printer was producing a hard black plastic object which, based on my training and experience, is shaped like a revolver,” he wrote in the complaint.

Vett told detectives he found blueprints for printing the gun online.

The arrest occurred as the debate rages over the online publication over 3-D guns.

Gun rights activist Cody Wilson has argued that the First Amendment allows him to publish downloadable blueprints for 3-D printed guns online.

The state Department in July gave Wilson the right to publish his blueprints, but 19 states hve since filed lawsuit against him. As a result, a federal judge blocked his plans.

Critics argue the 3-D printed guns would be untraceable, undetectable and an avenue for criminals to make their own firearms.

Wilson has since resigned from his company, Defense Distributed, after his arrest on charges of sex with a minor.