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Jail Sentence For Popular YouTube Pranksters (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the prank-gone-wrong dept.

Turns out crossing a line, even for a prank by a YouTube star, can go bonkers. An anonymous reader cites a BBC report: Four members of the controversial Trollstation YouTube channel have been jailed in connection with fake robberies and kidnappings. The group were involved in a fake robbery at London's National Portrait Gallery and a fake kidnapping at Tate Britain in July 2015. The channel, with 718,000 subscribers, has built a reputation for filming staged pranks around the city. A fifth member was imprisoned in March following a bomb hoax.The Crown Prosecution Service's Robert Short said: "The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way. We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London."

18 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Famous last words... by TWX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm really surprised that, "It's just a prank bro!" hasn't been documented on-video as famous last words.

    I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it. It's one thing to prank your friends that you have an understanding with, but it's an entirely different matter to do something that affects otherwise-uninvolved third parties.

    This is a case of, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Famous last words... by twotacocombo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it.

      Sure, like gluing a quarter to the ground or the ol' dollar bill on a fishing line trick; something that most people will instantly recognize as a silly, light-hearted prank and move on. One of my favorite memories was spending some time on a pier on Catalina island with a whoopie cushion, some friends, and some unsuspecting passers-by. However, many of these "pranks" I've seen recently involve some sort of direct interaction with the offender, and aren't easily escapable situations. If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark. When a prank starts making people feel threatened, prepare to get your chops busted one way or another.

    2. Re:Famous last words... by OzPeter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark.

      This^^^

      I remember the original Candid Camera. The best prank I every saw them pull was getting a large box delivered to an office and that box just fitting through the door. While the delivery people were distracted the camera crew added an insert to the door jam and said that the box was delivered to the wrong office. Now when the delivery guys tried to move the box the couldn't get it out of the office and couldn't understand why. Hilarious.

      On the other hand I saw another show which had people sitting in an office. Someone would drop a dummy past the window and before the mark could respond and actor would replace the dummy on the ground. Cue a mark who was concerned/worried about seeing potential death/suicide. Even I felt uncomfortable watching it.

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      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    3. Re:Famous last words... by MitchDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark."

      You've just banned ALL comedy, especially in the pathetic world we live in where someone is offended by/uncomfortable with everything...

    4. Re:Famous last words... by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it.

      Sure, like gluing a quarter to the ground or the ol' dollar bill on a fishing line trick; something that most people will instantly recognize as a silly, light-hearted prank and move on.

      This. But, looking at their channel, they had an awful lot of much more dangerous 'pranks' (faking shots fired in a parking garage, faking a street shooting in public). These are going to get The Man involved, and The Man (quite rightfully) takes a dim view of incidents deliberately designed to panic people. They also had more than a couple where they deliberately placed people (complete strangers) in fear of their lives... for amusement. Yet another crossing of the line of reasonability.

      Their channel name, Trollstation, gives the game away though... They weren't looking for laughs (a prank), they were (like all trolls) looking for attention. And they got the attention they deserved, the IRL equivalent of a banhammer.

  2. Goodness by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 5, Funny

    One would think that YouTube fame would protect one from the consequences of faking a realistic-looking burglary at a major museum.

    :|

    --

    Obliteracy: Words with explosions

  3. Re:Never moving to the UK by houstonbofh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fun for who?

  4. Idiots... by slasher999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pranks cross the line when emergency services (police, EMS and fire primarily) need to get involved, even to disprove a situation as an actual event. Real lives and property may be at stake and if these services are distracted by bs like this there absolutely should be consequences.

    1. Re:Idiots... by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who's inventing a law? It's clearly a breach of the peace and arguably wasting police time.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:Why do we always get this from the UK? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So weird. Am I the only person here who thinks it's odd that people who staged crimes and uploaded the video evidence to YouTube wouldn't be prosecuted for something just because they said "Just a prank lol! Lighten up lol!"

    Personally if somebody "pranked" me like that, I'd probably beat the shit out of them once I'd figured out I was in no real danger.

  6. Well.... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are pranks and then there are *pranks*...and when the latter crosses the line into destruction of property or causing real fear among an unsuspecting group of people (Burger King employees, crowds, shoppers, whatever) then it's time to drop the ban hammer and prosecute them.

    A fake robbery and a fake kidnapping? They're fucking lucky someone didn't step in and shoot them. Over here in the US that kind of shit is likely to get you shot dead by someone who's not in on the "joke".

    If I saw someone that I thought was actually being kidnapped, you can damn sure bet I'd try and stop it.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Well.... by AlanBDee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I remember once when I was working with juvenile kids who lived in a group home. We were at a park and one of the kids tried to run away. My co-worker ran to the van while I ran after the kid. About two blocks away I tackled the kid, my co-worker pulled up and put him in the van.

      To strangers what they saw was a teenager being run down by a much larger adult, tackled, and thrown into an unmarked van. The police were called, our license plate written down and it still took the police over an hour to find us.

      Had that been a planned abduction, with a stolen car and a quick switch to another vehicle they never would have found us. The police can't always reasonably respond to situations quickly enough. It's not their fault but as JustAnotherOldGuy said: in the US, you very could get shot doing pranks like that.

      At the same time, what if someone had intervened? What if I had been shot, shot at or another person tried to stop me "beating up the kid". What I did was completely legal, despite how bad the situation looked. The "good citizen" could have found themselves in a rough position to defend.

  7. Just release them next year and say "just kidding" by PixelPusher1532 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is OK. In a year or two they will be released from jail and informed that the jail sentence was all just a prank. Won't that be funny!!!

  8. Re:Never moving to the UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dr. Whom? FTFY

  9. Re:Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's just a prank, bro. Chill.

  10. Re:Harassment and abuse are never ok by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ummmm... no.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    No sig today...
  11. Re:At least the got a trial... by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't prank do you?

    What you want is something that will only fool 1 in 100, who will see him/her self as a dummy when they finish panicking.

    When 99 people are laughing, or at least smiling, and the 'victim' is just mildly embarrassed for having pissed herself, you have a good prank.

    Good pranks: Radio controlled alligator head at snow melt fed lake (mine). Running out the door of a museum with a replica masterpiece.

    Not good prank: Fake kidnapping.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  12. Re:So when will the house of lords be arrested? by Whibla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Care to share some specifics? Which Lord / Lady would you like arrested, and for what crime?

    If anything the House of Lords acts as a valuable 'brake' on some of the ludicrous legislation that comes out of the House of Commons. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, have a diversity of skills and education (unlike most career politicians, who invariably studied law at a prestigious university), and show, for the most part admirable restraint when it comes to knee-jerk media fed populist reactions.

    To, tangentially, digress, I'd heartily recommend the book "Mind Change - How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains" by Baroness Susan Greenfield, just one member of that House which you apparently so despise. How do your contributions to society rate, in comparison?