Number 15. Clown Prank
Another recent, and terrifying trend around October has been the presence of clowns. Last year in Florida and California people
would dress as clowns and hang around the city just staring at cars or pedestrians in
city streets. Some of the creepy clown enthusiasts would
even pop up on their neighbor’s security cameras doing things like staring silently,
playing with balloons, and violently destroying pumpkins. This year the trend but is more widespread,
Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Kentucky and New York have
all had reported incidents involving clowns. These clowns have been popping up more and
more, and even worse they’ve become dangerous. Several incidents of robbery or vandalism
have occurred in the Houston and NYC area. South Carolina had an isolated incident where
children report a clown near a wooded area trying to lure them in with stacks of cash,
but a suspect was never apprehended. In Kentucky on September 23rd, a man sporting
a clown suit was actually arrested in connection to the strange clown sightings. 20-year-old Jonathan Martin was arrested for
disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. A passerby reported a terrifying clown near
the woods, staring at cars as they passed. When an officer arrived on the scene to assess
the situation, Martin ran from him clearly aware he was in trouble. It’s uncertain exactly what charges Martin
will face but officers are investigation his possible connection to clown crimes in the
area. It’s uncertain why this trend has become
to popular, it started as fun and kind of scary but it’s boiled down to just outright
dangerous and terrifying. Number 14. Upside-down
Here is another horrible senior prank that makes you wonder how the prankster assumed
he’d get away with this one. In 2007 a Palo Alto senior on the baseball
team, was charged with felony vandalism after a poorly planned prank. 18-year-old Daniel Marchant, allegedly had
some plan which involved his upside down 1994 Volvo in the center of his campus’s front
courtyard. The Volvo was placed on the campus around
3:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, but police never caught information on how it was tipped
over. They suspected that others were involved in
helping Marchant assemble the prank, but nothing was caught on campus security footage and
he wouldn’t admit to others assisting him. The car was upside-down, missing its hood,
all of its tires, and was spray painted multiple colors. Among this, the license plate was removed
and the VIN number on the windshield was scratched out. On the car a message was spray painted that
read “Thizz or die” which was allegedly a reference to the use of ecstasy. In addition to this car prank, the teen attempted
to cement a toilet to another location on campus, but the cement didn’t dry in time
and the area was easily cleaned. The car cause about 3000 dollars’ worth
of damage to a wooden deck it was placed on. The teen was arrested and spent 7-hours in
county jail. To the surprise of many, and to the favor
of Marchant, the community was outraged. Fellow students, parents and even teachers
believe that jail time and a felony charge for a senior prank that didn’t hurt anyone
was too much. You’d think that spending a night in jail
would teach not only Marchant, but his peers a great lesson in not performing pranks. Or at least that’s likely was the school
board hoped for. Instead the community came together, made
shirts, viral Facebook pages, and held bake sales to raise money to get Marchant out of
jail and pay off the amount due in damages. This star-athlete not only accomplished his
prank, he got away with it without spending a dime, and with a newfound popularity. Number 13. Swatting
This term comes from the action of someone hacking into 911 systems and tricking a SWAT
team to raided and unsuspecting persons’ home, under either false threats or false
danger. This can also be accomplished by simply calling
in a fake hostage situation. A 17-year-old self-proclaimed prankster from
Canada was proven responsible for at least 3 separate swatting incidents. The unnamed boy made phone calls to several
high school, and cities hall locations in the U.S mainly in Florida. He threatened that he was a 30-something adult
male and was going to drive to the school or schools in a black jeep and kill students
with an AK-47. On a separate occasion, the young boy called
the local police in Winter Haven, Florida. He had allegedly been talking to a girl online
and she rejected him romantically. He decided it was a great time to put his
swatting skills to use. He claimed that he was the home-owner and
he was going to shoot his wife and their two children. A SWAT team, several ambulances, and even
a canine unit arrived at the home. The teen girl and her parents came out of
the home confused, but the young girl quickly realized what had happened and explained the
boys swatting history to authorities. Floridian police communicated with Canadian
forces about countless incidents that they believed the teen was guilty for. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police surrounded
the boys house, arrested him, and confiscated his computer and cell phone. He admitted to several accounts that they
believed him at fault for. As for the numerous other such circumstances
in the U.S and Canada, some evidence was found on his devices that led police to believe
he was chargeable for. Of course, when questioned the boy explained
that everything he did was just a prank. He claimed that he was a prankster and it
wasn’t his fault the 911 system was so faulty. While more information on his charges were
never made public, we can safely assume his excuses didn’t hold up well in court. Number 12. School Shooter
In a similar incident as the previous, a 14-year-old was arrested on September 29th, 2016 in relation
to a threat to shoot up his school. The teen who has remained unnamed, apparently
made an Instagram post in which he threatened to shoot another student over some dispute
they were in. The post also stated that some other students
may also become targets. The boy allegedly claimed he had a list of
people he would shoot. The post was deleted merely an hour or so
later, when he received a negative response from his followers and those tagged in the
post. It’s uncertain who reported the post to
police, but through the help of social media companies and fellow students, they were able
to obtain the name and address of the teen who made the post. Once word got out that he was wanted, he turned
himself in and was charged with threatening the safety of his fellow students. He was released to his parents several hours
later, possibly on bond, but is set to face his charges in court. He claimed that the post was a joke or prank,
and it was proven he had no access to weaponry. However, law enforcement and school officials
take these threats very seriously. Especially with the current state of mass
shootings occurring so often. It’s strange to consider that students actually
think they can make such serious threats and no one will take action. Number 11. Cricket Prank
Zaida Pugh, an online prankster and self-proclaimed actress has been performing and posting pranks
for nearly 4 years, as she says. This particular prank shows a homeless woman,
portrayed by Zaida, holding a bowl filled with 300 crickets and 300 worms on the D-Train
in New York City. She begins shouting “They’re a quarter
each, I need money!” As other that are in on the hoax harass and
tease her. At one point her co-star pushes her over and
even punches her. The bowl goes flying into the air and all
the insects are released on the train. People attempt to swarm away and avoid not
only the bugs, but the confrontation that is now occurring. She screams at passengers, hits her co-stars,
crawls all over the train floor in an attempt to collect the bugs, cries, hyperventilates,
slightly vomits and apparently even urinates on herself. The police show up and get the situation under
control but many passengers are forced to exit as law enforcement and train employees
sort out the situation. Zaida was taken to a local hospital to be
evaluated for mental illness. She allegedly didn’t break character until
she was forced to give her personal information, which revealed she was not a homeless woman
trying to sell crickets. Officers said she could be charged for reckless
endangerment, lying to officers, and disrupting the peace. Zaida has since posted several things on social
media trying to excuse the stunt. She said it was an art piece in the form of
a prank, made to bring awareness to the daily struggle of homeless women. Nonetheless, most people are outraged at how
careless she was for the safety of others, and how she left a huge grotesque mess for
train workers and city health departments. Whether or not that was a deeper meaning to
this wild prank, it’s likely it could have been carried out in a safer and cleaner way. Number 10. Senior Pee
The tradition of senior pranking goes back literally centuries. Senior students in their last year at high
school, college, university or even technical schools spend the last week or so pulling
practical jokes and intricate pranks as a way to leave their mark on the school. The tradition, also known as Muck-Up day,
is a well-loved and well planned ritual that is passed down from generation to generation. Senior pranking has almost become a competition,
each senior class trying to get more whacky than the last. Many schools in the United States, Canada,
and Australia have implemented new rules and even district laws to strictly prohibit or
regulate senior pranking. The often fun idea of causing chaos amongst
the campus has now been shot down by administrators and law enforcement. Maybe it’s with good reason, though. Pranks have been getting more dangerous each
year and you never know what a student will try to pull. In this case the prank played out 62 students
from a New Jersey high school in 2014, wasn’t dangerous at all. It also wasn’t very well planned out, and
as far as a prank goes it was pretty pointless. The teens broke into the campus in the middle
of the night and trashed nearly every classroom and office on campus. They tipped over desks, shredded important
documents, broke windows, greased door handles, set up streamers and balloons. The best, or actually worst, part of this
prank is that they also peed all over the hallways. Apparently the big bang of this prank was
that the group made large, long puddles of urine throughout the major halls of the school. They were arrested for felony vandalism and
trespassing school property. If they were going to get arrested for a prank,
you’d think they’d have a better plan than just peeing on everything. Number 9. Clown Facebook
Another trend in relation to clowns that has happened to several high schools across the
U.S are clown Facebook pages. Fellow students create a Facebook page with
a creepy clown profile photo and make threats toward other students or the community. Most of the threats are clearly playful, not
dangerous and not taken very seriously. This trend was taken too far when two girls
in Fresno, California were arrested due to threats made on Facebook and Instagram from
profiles made to look like they belonged to clowns. A 14-year-old girl created an account under
the name Joyful Randy and threatened to shoot up her high school, she was arrested and could
face felony threat charges. Another young girl was arrested for the same
thing directed at Roosevelt High School. When arrested she cried that it was only a
fun Halloween prank. Yet another student posted to Instagram, as
a clown threatening to place bombs at their high school however that particular suspect
is yet to have been apprehended. Both girls that have been arrested will face
felony terroristic threats and could face up 3 years behind bars for what they rationalized
as a prank. These incidents led to a serious drop in student
attendance on both campuses, as parents feared their child’s safety. This being said, police plan to crack down
not only on the threats made by students, but on all clown related reports. Number 8. Homicide
Everyone has that friend that loves joking around a little too much, they never seem
to know when they’ve crossed a line and they don’t think about how badly a prank
can really go. A couple in Newaygo, Michigan are the picture
perfect example of that jokester friend. On April 3rd 2012 the pair invited over mutual
friends for dinner. They planned an elaborate prank where the
husband would lay on the living room floor in a pool of effects blood with a fake bullet
hole on his back. They planned that the friends would come in
and see the gruesome scene and around that time his wife would come into the living room
in a frantic while holding a fake pistol and pretending she had killed him. This was all a very complex belated April
fools prank, and it all went horribly wrong. The friends came into the home and saw the
husband on the ground, screamed and immediately fled the scene and called local police. 4 separate police units, emergency medical
services, and several news stations were alerted immediately and set up a perimeter around
the home. Officers demanded that anyone in the home
walk out, backwards with their hands in the air. The couple did as they were instructed and
it was apparently a shocking site for those on the scene to see a man with a bullet hole
walk perfectly fine. After they wer approached, and frisked they
explained the situation to police but were still taken in for questioning as their home
was searched. They somehow blamed their friends for not
getting that it was just an April Fools Prank, and they said “they at least could have
told us they were calling the law.” While no more information was publicized on
this matter, officers said the couple could have faced serious charges for wasting police
time. Number 7. Fake Hanging
Randy Wood of rural New York played a very dangerous prank on his ex-wife in April 2004. Randy created a very flimsy, very dangerous
makeshift harness, which he hung from a mid-sized limb on his tree in order to prank his wife
into thinking that he had hung himself. He called her and asked her to come look at
something he got her. Before she arrived he managed to climb the
tree, settle into the harness, hang a noose and wrap it slightly around his neck. So many things could have gone wrong during
this, it’s honestly a miracle he didn’t actually kill himself. His wife showed up and took no time before
doing what most people would do and called 911. Several cop cars, ambulances and fire trucks
were sent to the scene of the alleged suicide. Once responders arrived, however, the situation
was already pretty clear because Randy was yelling down at his wife and officers about
how it was just a prank. The fire department did help him down, and
the EMT’s did check him out but he was arrested and later faced charges in relation to a fake
emergency which cost him a 1000 dollar fine and a year in jail. It’s pretty uncertain what he planned to
accomplish with this, and it’s a little confusing as to why he chose his ex-wife but
his plan fell apart. He should just be thankful that his setup
didn’t. Number 6. A Prank Addict
Perhaps the oldest form of pranking is the prank call. Before cell phones, caller I.D, email and
YouTube the best way to get a great laugh was to call someone up and ask the age old
question “Is your refrigerator running?” Prank calling has been popular since the early
50’s and has even made a name for itself in shows like The Simpsons, with Bart’s
constant prank calls to Moe’s. With modern technology advancing more and
more it’s kind of nice to know that people out there still enjoy a good old fashioned
prank call here and there. This girl seems to be more of a prank calling
addict, though. A man was arrested for prank calling New Brunswick
police and reporting that a woman was going to be raped by an armed kidnapper. This led to several police units and a SWAT
team showing up to the home. When they realized it was all a hoax the number
was tracked down and an arrest was made. A Texas woman named Fatina Ward was found
to be connected this joke. When she was taken into custody she admitted
to countless similar crimes and told police she just couldn’t help herself. The calls started when she joined an online
chat where people would report fake emergencies to other people addresses and watch the news
to see how many units, officers or SWAT members would show up. The person with the most “points” would
win the round. According to Fatina it all started as a game
but she became carried away with it, and was making the calls at least daily, even when
not playing the game. She apparently got some kind of excitement
out of it and just couldn’t control herself. While Ward was in custody numerous county
police departments called in to report that she had made calls to them as well. Ward had made up to as many as 5 calls in
one day in Union, Belleville, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. It also came to light that roughly 8 arrest
warrants were out for her and that she was a registered sex offender that failed to report
her new address which resulted in her bond being revoked. In 2006, roughly a year after her arrest,
an FBI agent was aside to investigate her calls to see if they were in relation to some
unsolved reports which claimed children were taken as hostages, but police were give an
address to an abandoned ranch. It was never publicized what charges she was
received but it’s almost certain she served some hefty jail time. Number 5. The Chair in the Road
There have been plenty of pranks or jokes that have directly led to the death of an
innocent person, which will be mentioned later. In this case a prank caused an officer to
be run over by a drunk driver, and the pranksters went on the run for months. In 2007 two teens had what they thought was
a great idea, to cause a little disruption on a small Florida highway. 19-year-olds Tyler Jenkins and Katie Peller
sit a lawn chair in the middle of the highway, in the dead of night. There was no apparent reason for this, other
than to get a laugh out of the idea of a chair sitting in the highway, and someone having
to get out of their car and move it. Well that person forced to get out of their
car was 58-year-old sergeant Karl Strohsal. He was driving in an unmarked police vehicle
going down the highway when he noticed the chair. He likely thought it was just fallen out of
a passing truck and pulled over to move it before it caused any serious disruptions or
collisions. Just as he was exiting his car and heading
toward the chair, an 19-year-old drunk driver was speeding down the highway, didn’t see
Strohsal and accidentally killed him. The driver was arrested on the scene, and
Strohsal was pronounced dead. The teen responsible was charged with driving
under the influence and driving with a suspended license. Unfortunately, there were complications in
the evidence that proved he caused the death, so he was not charged with manslaughter. Some argued that the officer had been hit
before the drunk driver showed up to the scene and he simply ran over an already dead body,
but others highly doubt such a farfetched concept. A year later, investigations into social media
and local security footage concluded that Jenkins and Peller had left the chair in the
road as some sort of prank. The two had learned of the officer’s death
and were avoiding police, basically on the run, until their arrest in January 2008. It’s a depressing thought that these two
not only caused the life of a devoted officer to be cut short, but possibly ruined the rest
of their own lives- all over a plastic chair in the middle of a highway. Number 4. Wendy’s Prank
There’s nothing wrong with being a loyal employee. Many admire a person’s ability to take orders
without question and follow any rules put in front of them. In this case, though, a little disobedience
amongst staff could have likely saved the Wendy’s fast food chain a several thousand
dollars. 19-year-old James Markel from Diboll, Texas
was arrested in September 2009 and charged with one count of terrorizing and one count
of felony criminal damage to property after he was found directly responsible for 20,000
dollars’ worth of damages caused to a Wendy’s. Markle called into the restaurant and spoke
with the manager. He pretended to be an employee from the corporate
office that was appointed to help the manager check some safety regulations. Markle had the manager test the stores fire
suppression system, or fire extinguisher to be sure that it was up to date and ready to
use. He, of course, instructed the manager incorrectly
and caused the extinguisher to go off and spray thick foam all over the back of the
restaurant. Markle then instructed that all employees
evacuate because the foam was “fatally toxic”. Once the entire crew was outside the restaurant
he instructed that everyone break the windows to avoid any further damage from the foam. Employees used rocks, brooms and their bare
hands to break out the windows in an attempt to salvage what they thought would be terrible
damage. They didn’t realize that the only damage
being caused was by them. One employee was hit by a shard of glass in
the neck. Markle told the manager that someone would
need to urinate on his neck in order to prevent poisoning from the foam. Thankfully before anyone pulled their pants
down a deputy arrived to figure out why employees were breaking the windows of their workplace. The manager put the deputy on the phone with
Markle but the deputy refused to talk it out over the phone and insisted that someone from
the corporate office be sent down. Once Markle hung up the phone it was clear
the whole thing was a joke. Through investigation officers found out that
Markle was part of Pranknet, where several incidents like this had been caused by immature
self-proclaimed pranksters. Markle was arrested and admitted to the Wendy’s
incident as well as at least 4 similar episodes in Texas and Louisiana. Markle could have faced up to 18 years in
prison for crimes of terrorism. Number 3. Stop Sign Prank
Yet another example of pranking leading to someone’s death. 19-year-old Seth Stonerock didn’t think
much of the prank when he did it. He thought it would cause a little chaos but
claims he never imagined anyone would get hurt. The prank involved covering a stop sign with
saran wrap, toilet paper, and petroleum jelly. It’s a little uncertain how he thought this
wouldn’t cause any harm as the stop sign was located at an intersection which was known
to be pretty busy. The immature prank led to the deaths of 85-year-old
Mary Spangler and 81-year-old Jeanne Shea, that were sisters riding together to get lunch. Jeanne was driving her vehicle when she passed
the covered stop sign and collided with another passing car. Mary died on the scene and Jeanne was forced
to face 11 surgeries over a few days until her body gave up and she died in the hospital. The families of the two women were outraged
at the ignorance of this teens prank. The women were elderly but were said to have
been in great health and could have lived as long as 10 years, when solely considering
the information on their health records. Seth was arrested in connection the prank
and was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. It was clear the teen did not clearly think
through his actions, and felt deep remorse for causing these two women to lose their
lives. Number 2. A Gun Prank Gone Wrong
In August 2009, as the school year had just began – two Purdue university students were
arrested for murdering their friend. 22-year-olds Cory Lynch and William Calderon
were drinking and joking around with gun, that they assumed were not loaded. Their mutual friend, 21-year-old Landon Siela
was also playing around with the friends. Reports claim that he was not one of the trio
messing with the guns, but that he had been drinking. Apparently Cory and William pointed their
guns at Landon to scare and joke around with him. The both joked that they were going to shoot
him and counted to 3. Both Cory and William pulled the trigger,
thinking that nothing would happen as the guns weren’t loaded. In Cory’s case, he was wrong and the gun
was in fact loaded. The 45-caliber handgun shot Landon in the
neck and killed him immediately. The terrified friends called 911 immediately
and were taken into custody for questioning. Cory was charged with reckless homicide and
pointing a loaded firearm, while William was charged with pointing a loaded firearm and
false informing as he provided the gun to Cory. While this was just a stupid joke gone tragically
wrong, it’s a great lesson in taking more precaution when using or handling firearms. Number 1. Prankster Kills Co-worker
In early 2006, 25-year-old Joshua Martin played a prank on his coworker. The two were EMTS and had a little time to
waste before going back on the clock. Martin thought it would be comical to prank
his coworker by jumping out of the back of their ambulance and shocking her with the
defibrillator. The shock caused her heart to stop. Martin tried to resuscitate his 23-year-old
coworker, Courtney Rhoton and sped her to a nearby hospital where she stayed in a coma-like
state for 3 days before dying. Martin cried in court while apologizing to
her family, he claimed he didn’t know the defibrillator was set to such a high voltage. He was charged with reckless homicide and
sentence to 5 years in prison, only one of which he served before being released on parole.
