(ABC 6 News) – Eight toy guns were picked up by the Austin Police Department last weekend.

The calls came in from people near the Galloway Park area in the city, concerned that they spotted a gun that looked real.

And now, Austin police are urging the public that if you are using toy guns, where you are using them, matters.

“If you are using them around an athletic field, are you using them on a public roadway, very different than a private backyard,” said Chief David McKichan of the Austin Police Department.

But it’s not all about location, McKichan said the appearance of the gun is even more important. He said that most toy guns are sold with a orange tip, and if one doesn’t have it, it can be hard to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not.

“That safety feature, in allowing a third party to go ‘hey, that person just has a gel gun or a water gun,’ that goes away, and now we may have a third party going, ‘hey I think I just saw someone with a real fire arm,'” McKichan said.

But the issue doesn’t stop in Austin as we’ve seen similar incidents in Rochester as well.

“In Rochester, I would say that toy guns are a concern. I would say mostly it’s how they are used,” said Captain Aaron Penning of the Investigations Division of the Rochester Police Department.

Penning said they have seen fake guns used as an intimidation factor in the city.

“Because they look real and there’s no way discern whether or not they are a replica, that is a concern,” Penning said.

And that’s why police in both cities are urging parents to be on the lookout when their kids are playing with their toy guns.

“We want them to recognize the danger, the public and other’s aren’t gonna be readily able to tell that it’s not a real firearm,” said McKichan.

The Austin Police Department said that even if a gun doesn’t look real, it is still important to reach out to police and report any suspicious activity.