Mother was arrested after taking April Fool's Day prank too far
It's April Fool's Day today (1 April), and that means dealing with a seemingly endless amount of practical jokes amongst pals, wading through countless gimmick news stories online and raising your eyebrows over a whole load of hoaxes.
And, as we've seen over the years, it's clear that some people take April Fool's Day way too far, including one woman whose prank ended up getting her arrested back in 2021.
The woman in question, who hails from Kansas, thought it would be funny to call up her daughter and tell her she had been shot - but things quickly got out of hand.
The woman, then 58, rang up her daughter and started telling her about the shooting before quickly hanging up the call, per Indy100.
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Understandably, her daughter was quite rattled and immediately phoned up 911 to inform them of what she thought was devastating news.
The outlet reports that between 15 and 20 police officers rushed to her home.
Armed with guns, the officials broke down the door to her home only to find that no one was home, Wichita police Lt. Ronald Hunt said in a statement, according to the Wichita Eagle.
Instead, they eventually found out that the trickster was at work the whole time and that she had faked being shot in order to prank her daughter.
"I got a call from my mum, and she was like 'he shot me, he shot me'. I was doing like 100 on the highway," the daughter told Kake.
"I’m still shook. They take it seriously, and this is on you mom."
Wichita police said they arrested the woman on suspicion of an unlawful request for emergency service assistance.
"April Fools’ can be a good, funny little joke in some circumstances," Lt. Hunt said at the time, adding that when it ends up resulting in a police response, 'it’s not funny any more'.
Grief therapist Zoe Clark-Coates MBE took to Instagram last week, where she urged her 140k followers against making one specific joke on April Fool's.
"PLEASE DON'T DO FAKE PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENTS ON APRIL FOOLS DAY," wrote in a text post. "IT'S NOT FUNNY, IT'S CRUEL."
Zoe explained the situation further in the caption of the post, writing: "I know many people see no harm in this….and yes, it’s often done in total innocence and with no intention to ever cause upset, but I see first-hand the harm jokes like this have on many people. Those struggling to conceive, those with no hope of ever conceiving, and those who have lost babies in pregnancy or post-birth are often the ones left reeling."
Explaining the reason as to 'why', the expert outlined: "Well, it may surprise you to hear that it can take a lot for these wonderful people to even respond to posts like this… they may have gone away, had a good cry and then spent a few hours compiling a suitably happy response to your post, to show you how pleased they are for you.
"Then there will be other people who don’t respond, they just shut themselves away to hide, and cry, and pray that the next pregnancy announcement will be theirs… However, what they will soon discover is your announcement is not real… it is just a joke, and they have experienced all this additional grief and worry for nothing."
Zoe concluded: "So PLEASE think twice about fake pregnancy posts, make someone smile this April Fool’s day rather than cry!"
Rhiannon Ingle