An Aberdeen Hotel sustained significant water damage after an internet-based prank coerced a guest to bash the head off of a sprinkler system with a toilet tank lid, authorities said.
The Holiday Inn Express on Beards Hill Road in Aberdeen sustained an estimated $100,000 in water damage as a result of the hoax, which occurred just before 1:30 a.m. Friday, according to the state fire marshal’s office.
A guest at the hotel was randomly contacted by the website www.pranku.net, also known as Pranknet, and was told a gas leak had occurred in the hotel.
“I guess with technology and electronics out there, they do some type of search out there and picked this particular hotel, this particular room. As far as we can tell, this lady had no knowledge of the prank,” deputy chief state fire marshal Mark Bilger said. “The individual on the phone sounded authentic. She felt confident the information she was being told was in fact the truth, and acted accordingly.”
Those actions included stuffing towels under the door of the second-floor room, according to Aberdeen Police Department spokesman Lt. Fred Budnick. Eventually the pranksters—still on the phone—convinced the guest to remove the lid of the room’s toilet bowl, and use it to break off the sprinkler head.
The resulting water flow damaged eight rooms and the floor below. Damage to the hotel was estimated at $50,000 by the state fire marshal’s office and a water damage restoration company, and damages to its contents were estimated at an additional $50,000. A total of 25 firefighters from the Aberdeen and Aberdeen Proving Ground fire departments responded to the scene.
Later, when members of the Aberdeen Police Department were present at the scene, the pranksters called back and spoke briefly with officers. Budnick said he was not immediately aware of the details of the conversation.
Both Budnick and Bilger said the woman had not been charged with a crime in connection with the incident.
Pranknet is an online community of pranksters which have targeted fast food restaurants and hotels across the U.S. with various hoaxes. The website, which is allegedly based in Canada, has been the subject of investigations in recent years by the FBI.
In most incidents, the prank callers convince individuals to pull fire alarms, trigger sprinkler systems, or break windows or other objects. Several incidents have closely resembled the Aberdeen hoax.
A 2009 investigation by news website The Smoking Gun claimed to have identified the leader of the site, and shed additional light on their activities.
So the “pranksters” engage in felonious property destruction by convincing innocent second hand parties to initiate the damage.
This is not a prank. Pranks are harmless, and, in the end, funny.
The person, or persons, involved in perpetrating such damage should be pursued and have charges pressed on them.
I fuly agree with Bruce O’H’s comment. If the person had suffered a heart attack and died or if someone on a floor below had been injured by the rush of water or if a fire or accident (real emergencies) had needed the crews that were wasting time and resources responding to someone’s “prank” – how funny would it be? Evacuating a hotel room at any time is not funny. I’ve had to do it.
When we label things as anything other than wahat they truly are, we are doing a disservice to all parties. The victim of this “prank” could be traumatized for years by this experience. How “funny” will it be when she is terrified of staying in a hotel, afraid to answer a phone and doubts the validity of any call’s contents?
It was not a prank. It terrorized this woman, other guests, the staff and pepetuated fraud. The article details other such incidences. The site exists to harm others and the property of others – shut it down!
This article serves a real purpose in alerting the public of this kind of thoughtless and destructive activity. Perhaps we can forestall it from happening again. Thanks.
A friend of mine on the East Coast who owns a B&B forwarded the article about the Aberdeen Hotel pranksters. I now have a better appreciation of his apprehension about his guests.
I feel sorry for the woman who was fooled into doing this, but this was no prank. It was vandalism by proxy.
It’s against the law to yell “Fire” in a theater. Were it possible, the members of this web site should all be prosecuted and made to pay restitution to the hotel for the damage they caused. Their support of this website makes them just as guilty as the specific individual who made the call and had the nerve to call back to see how successful they had been. This group and their copy-cats won’t be so eager to play this game once they have a court order to pay fines and fees, and live with a criminal record for the rest of their lives.
Being that this is a Canadian based group I doubt that anything can be done. But making this kind of activity illegal would be a big step in the right direction.
Yeah and if you want I know some Nigerians that will make you a millionaire if you cash some checks for them in Western Union accounts. Get real, if you are ever suspect of something dial “0” and there is a hotel staffer who will tell you if thats legit or not.
Sorry common sense is free, but some folks feel the need to pay!
Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with common sense. Hence the reason that the “pranksters” are so successful. They prey on the vulnerable, of which there is no limit of.
Sooo, if they are not prosecuted, they will continue to wreak their havoc.
But, of course, common sense would have told you that.
Take it a step further. This is not vandalism or pranks.
It’s terrorism. I hope the FBI/CIA is going after these degenerates.
This call was NOT the work of PRANKNET, they have not done any damage calls since 2009. Anybody in the chat room that requests a damage prank gets booted from the room. I feel that Dex (the creator of pranknet) should still be prosecuted for what he has done in the past, but i think it is unfair put the blame on him for the recent calls since he has tried very hard to no longer be associated with doing damage calls. If the media did a little bit of digging they would of found out that PRANKNET is not responsible for these calls.
The worst call they have done lately was getting a hotel guest to lean a bucket of water up against another hotel guests door, then they would call the other guest and have them open the door and get their legs and feet soaked with water. That is the farthest they have gone in a long time, and most of the calls are not even that bad.
Well don’t blame the media. They are reporting what the information was given to them. And it’s not just local media… it’s national news now. I’m amazed that you would even know about the website and how it works. Goes to show how you entertain yourself.
Just because YOU personally don’t feel the calls are that bad, doesn’t mean they are ok. I don’t want to go to a hotel that I paid for and be disturbed, even if it is just by getting soaked with water.
Prosecute dex. He was the voice on the phone.