Kids are home from school with time on their hands. They get to joshing around and come up with some crazy idea that they think is hysterical. A prank is born. On the surface these teenage antics seem harmless enough, but every year silly pranks get people killed.
Every year seemingly harmless pranks go wrong and people get hurt or carted off to jail and some people die. What your teen and his friends think is funny may be considered a malicious act of vandalism by stressed home or business owners. Unsuspecting victims not in on the joke often mistake the situation for real and act accordingly. Panksters have been mistaken for burglars and shot. Roadway hazards have caused fatal accidents. Sometimes through pure chance pranksters prey on the wrong person. Pranksters have been chased and beaten and even killed by their enraged victims.
Consider these pranks gone wrong:
- High school students placed a deer decoy in the middle of the road. The 16-year-old driver who came around the bend swerved to avoid the "animal" and crashed into a tree, suffering permanent brain damage and killing his passenger. While some of the pranksters received probation, two were sentenced to prison.
- A group of 20-year-old boys was pelting passing cars with eggs. One irate victim chased the boys, shooting and killing one of them.
- A high school junior was mistaken for a burglar while tying fishing line to a neighbor's door knocker so he could "knock" from afar. The frightened neighbor shot and killed him in the dark.
Pranks can result in charges of vandalism, destruction of property, assault or worse. A group of high schools carrying out a senior prank were charged with planting bombs, a felony, when they laced their high school with alarm clocks set to go off at a pre-arranged time. Every year students are suspended, expelled and barred from graduation for committing pranks or acts of vandalism on school property.
The risk that prank victims will fail to see the humor in the situation is real. Every year pranksters wind up in court or in the hospital, and some pay for their wayward sense of humor with their lives. Juvenile pranks can lead to conviction of a crime and a criminal record. Representation by a skilled criminal defense attorney may make the difference between probation and community service and a life-changing criminal record and jail sentence.
