A man has been roundly lambasted for tricking his partner into believing a nuclear attack was imminent.
Wayne Coldicutt, 32, mocked up a BBC and Government-branded announcement headlined 'emergency broadcast' which tells them to 'be prepared to shelter for 14 days after the strike', for his fiancée, Becca Redhead to see.
You can watch the video below.
Becca had just finished bathing three-year-old Louie Coldicutt on Saturday evening when she was left shaken and shocked by the “announcement”.
In “pure terror”, Becca rings her mum Ann, 61, who is forced to calm her daughter down and reveal that she is the victim of a cruel prank.
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While Coldicutt hatched the grand plan out against his fiancée in part of their ongoing prank wars, he has been criticised for his “tone-deaf” practical joke, especially in light of the current circumstances surrounding Ukraine and Russia.
Becca, from Kirkdale, Merseyside, said: "He's lucky to still be alive, trust me. He nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought the Russians were coming.
"I can hand-on-heart say I feel like I've lived through the beginning of a world war. That's how it felt. It felt real.
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"When I was running downstairs with Louie, I was in slow motion. I thought we were going to die.”
However, Wayne himself is pleased that his prank was such a huge ‘success’.
“I'm glad she took it well otherwise it could have been me packing all my supplies,” he said.
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"I knew she'd fall for it because she's so dramatic and gullible with everything. I knew she was going to be an easy target.
"I could see the panic in her face. She was in pure terror for about a minute. You could tell she thought the world was over.
"The light matching the TV made it look even worse. It was like an emergency room. It's a good job her mum told her or she'd have been hiding in a bunker by now.
"I don't know how I kept a straight face. When she came over to me at the end I thought 'here we go', but she took it well.
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"It went brilliantly. Beyond expectations. She's never going to be able to top that. I've won the war and the battle."
Last year, Becca had pranked Wayne into thinking she'd bought him the new PS5, but in fact the photo of it was a camera filter, so he thought this stunt would help him claim revenge.
The video, posted by Becca's brother Alan Redhead, has been liked and retweeted more than 20,000 times, with users split on their opinion of whether it was funny or not.
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User Jay Pea said: "There would be a nuclear fallout in my house if I done that."
Noel Early said: "Love the priorities, ring mum first and forget about the sandbags and grub."
However, some users thought the prank was insensitive and not funny at all.
User Jamballam said: "Look, I do see the humour in this. If you did this any other time, it would be hilarious.. but doing something like this right now is just really tone-deaf.
"There’s people in Ukraine, for whom these messages on their TV are real. Spare them a thought."
Oreoslim added: "This is really unfunny, with what is happening being used as a punchline to an unfunny gag. Have a meeting with yourself."
Kimberley Bond