A Prank Turns Deadly

[Gravekeeper]

How is this even defined as a "prank"? It sounds to me more like "Willfull sabotage".

What the fuck is the prank part? >.>

I also don't know about down there, but up here signs and what not are handled by city districts and highways. If you call it into the police, they just pass it to a city or highway worker if they're busy. ( I do dispatch for said city workers at work, and I get sign tampering/damage calls fairly often from the cops ).

So its no trouble to the cops at all. The cops may even just refer you the right number to the city.

[insertNameHere]

lets see, I usually was the voice of reason, Sure I had tools with me when my friends wanted a funny named street sign. However, fucking with stop signs is just fucking stupid. Actually some pricks in the area thought it was be funny to steal "cross traffic does not stop" signs at place them at 4 way stops and watch people sit there and wait. Yeah it sounds funny, but now you have people unaware that that semi flying down the road doesn't have to and is not intending on stopping.

[Rageaholic]

How is this even defined as a "prank"? It sounds to me more like "Willfull sabotage".

I once saw a funny prank involving a stop sign. It simply had the words "The Tea Party" on it. So you had "STOP The Tea Party".

Probably still illegal, but at least it wasn't dangerous.

[Hyena Dandy]

I never like pranks, but I don't even see how this is a prank... Its just vandalism.

I once saw a funny prank involving a stop sign. It simply had the words "The Tea Party" on it. So you had "STOP The Tea Party".

Probably still illegal, but at least it wasn't dangerous.

That's pretty common for anybody. The police have stopped trying. Practically every politician is on a stop sign somewhere in Lexington.

[Sleepwalker]

Reminds me when my fucktard of a boss god mad at me for running up our drivethrough times when I took off my headset and called 911 for an old man who collapsed outside. In 117 degree heat, at 1pm. It is what the bloody number is for. Ain't gonna be no kitty genoveses on my watch.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

...how about police get irritated with you because you called 911 and decide to blame the situation on you as well? Just the hassle of that would be enough of a deterrant for me.

Then the best thing to do is to not get the police involved in this at all.

A traffic sign is the responsibility for the local Department of Transportation (State Highway Administration, County Public Works, etc). Call them and verify that the sign has not been covered by them. If that's the case, ask the person if it would be OK to go and remove the film and when they say yes, get the name and the extension of the person who gave you the go-ahead so if the police do come over and ask what's going on here...

You can say that "Bob Jones at Maryland State Highway Administration (or whatever agency you called) at x12345 was notified that someone had done this and gave me the OK to remove the film."

But that being said, not everyone knows enough to to do that. They only know to call the police.

And here's another hitch in the situation. A fair number of police numbers that are listed as the full area code+number non-emergency number are answered by the emergency 911 center.

So now you're calling about a non-emergency situation and you just reached the emergency 911 dispatcher. You have been drilled and have had it pounded into your head that bad and evil things happen if you call 911 and it is not an emergency and a number of people freak and mumble wrong number and hang up.

I at least was rattled but had the sense to say "I didn't call 911, I called the number if the book" to which they explained that this was the EMS dispatch center, emergency or otherwise and so I was able to report the drunk who was passed out on my porch.

So I can see the person being a little leery about getting involved. Some police officers take a dim view of you taking matters into your hands, others get pissed off if you call them for something that is not an emergency.

In either case, the real fault lies in the two twats who did this in the first place. They fucked this up. In my mind they are eligible for manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide charges. They didn't intend to kill someone, but their actions directly led to the death of another.

On an aside...a death without intent is manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. What would the charge be for the driver that lost part of her leg?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I can think of at least fifteen pranks that not only don't endanger anyone's lives, they're actually pretty funny for everyone involved. These asshats couldn't think of even one, apparently. And I'm stupid as hell.

I'm a practical joker. But I have rules that I live by.

1. No harm - I'm a Wiccan so harming others is something that I avoid if I can help it.

2. Nothing that does more property damage than I'm willing to pay for. Sabotaging pencils and pens so they self-destruct when used is one thing. breaking something that is of value to another is a no-no for me.

3. Nothing that can't be cleaned up with a minimum of effort, or won't self-clean up over a reasonable period of time. Shaving cream is a good example of that.

Cases in point. A favorite was the time I taught the blind girl in my class how to sword fight with a rapier. I wore a bell so she could hear where I was and we practiced a routine until we could do it at speed.

She lived across the street of the Principal of our school and we always got home two hours before he did. He came home to see me fencing with a girl with a rapier in one hand and her guide dog's harness in the other.

The reaction was priceless. He came home and saw us going at it. He started to walk over to us to say something...then paused, shook his head and walked towards his door with a very puzzled expression on his face.

We both got some strange looks from him the next week at school.

Another prank was the friend of ours who was restoring a Jeep CJ-7. He had done the engine to perfection, the body was replaced with fiberglass and he had it painted and the floor coated with that truck bed liner stuff (around here we call it "Rhino Hide"). The only thing he had left was he was waiting on some new seats as his were crap and covered with seat covers.

He was bragging that they had arrived (he went home for lunch and saw them) so we had some fun. We made a fake seat out of wire and covered it with the seat cover and replaced the driver's seat with it.

He sat down and of course crushed it. We brought out the real seat and fixed it for him all the while he's laughing and beating us with a rolled-up newspaper.

[lordlundar]

Sabotaging pencils and pens so they self-destruct when used is one thing.

Okay, now you got me curious.

[AdminAssistant]

Am I the only one who doesn't find the concept of something self-destructing in my hand all that funny?

[Andara Bledin]

So now you're calling about a non-emergency situation and you just reached the emergency 911 dispatcher.

If I wasn't out removing the plastic (which is my most likely course of action), I'd have just called 911 outright. Someone has interfered with a traffic control device, which, more often than not, would lead to unsafe conditions. As the incident shows, that's exactly what did happen. It may not be a dire emergency, but it's still something that needs to be handled sooner rather than later.

It's a simple matter of weighing the possibilities.

The other side always ends up with potential death and maiming, so unless this end is pretty damn serious, it's not about to stop me from doing the right thing.

Am I the only one who doesn't find the concept of something self-destructing in my hand all that funny?

It would depend on the manner of self-destruction.

Blowing up in your hand? Not cool.

A pencil made so that it falls apart at a certain amount of pressure? Mostly harmless.

^-.-^

[guywithashovel]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stor...stop-sign.html

It seems that some people did call 911, but a dispatcher didn't do anything about it and has been fired.

[Andara Bledin]

I agree with the article that the earlier call not being dealt with could be excused (still not cool), but the operator on the later call did their job and the same person who didn't handle it the first time continued to not handle it.

I'm not sure if, at that point, I wouldn't consider it to be willful malfeasance and a possibly actionable offense, beyond the loss of the job.

^-.-^

[Nyoibo]

Don't you guys have a non-emergency number for police assistance?

[Andara Bledin]

Depending on your area, not necessarily. Some have non-emergency numbers, some have 311 implementation, and others have all calls go through 911, and you just let them know it's a non-emergency call.

Columbus, OH, is one of those cities that employs the 311 service, but I'm not sure if it reaches Circleville.

I, personally, think it should become the standard for non-emergency calls for things like safety issues and municipal issues so that people have somewhere to call and don't have to worry about getting the right department or even looking up a non-emergency number. It would also help in cases where the problem is found outside of normal operating hours.

^-.-^

[Nyoibo]

See here, at least in my state we have a number for non-emergency police assistance or atendance, which is a number for the entire state.