It turned out, it was just a prank -- an elaborate way to ask the woman to go to a school dance with them. But those who witnessed the entire thing didn't see it that way. And local police say this was a situation that could have turned deadly.

It began when two students from Northwest College came across the street to a market to "kidnap" a young woman. Worried witnesses called Kirkland police.

"Report was that two ninja type people had abducted a female and they gave a description of the vehicle. We relayed that information to surrounding agencies," said Sgt. Nick Seibert with Kirkland police.

Bellevue police connected that alert to 911 calls from a strip mall on Bellevue Way.

"Two men dressed in black with only their eyes showing through the mask ran toward the back of the park and two of the men ran into the store so at that point, we were worried that a potential armed robbery had occurred," said Lt. Autumn Fowler with Bellevue Police.

Bellevue police tracked down the vehicle minutes later and was told the woman was never in harm's way, that she knew her captors and that she was fully aware it was a prank to ask her to a dance.Police say it was no prank for the officers who responded to the reported kidnapping.

"When we contact people we believe have committed that crime, there's a safety issue and if they don't act appropriately, they run the risk of getting injured or shot depending on what their actions are," Seibert said. "And if it's a scheme, we don't want to have things go bad."

Fowler added: "You saw us out there with all our firearms and shotguns and everything and we don't know what we're coming into and it could be a potentially deadly situation."

No criminal charges had been filed as of Saturday night, but Kirkland police were mulling over filing disorderly conduct charges.