[Brian Pfleuger]

He did lie.

"Is this stuff for real?"

"Yeah, why?"

That's a lie. It's not "for real" in the context that you lay out the story. Yeah, it's real ammo. Yeah, it's for real guns. No, it's not for real zombies, which the store owner was clearly implying.

Obviously we weren't there and you're now "sterilizing" the story by adding doubt implying that somehow you know the kid knew.

None of that jives with the way you originally presented the story.

You keep saying things like "this kid needed a reality check" and the situation was "begging for a laugh", both of which might be true... and neither of which happened.

The kid got taken for a ride, scammed. He didn't get a reality check or educated or even a good laugh at his expense. He got lied to and scammed.