Dead Pizza Dude (long story)

[Slayergrrl]

I work for the Police (Civilain) Not only is impersonating a Police Officer a serious offense but so is falsifying a report. If this woman did go to the Police and the Police were dispersed to a scene that means that manpower was taken off the streets looking for someone that doesn't exist. Manpower that could have been used somewhere else. especially if a real crime was happening it could have seriously cut into the response time.

[crazylegs]

With the job I do (those who know, great, those who don't have a search of my threads and have a quick look), I'm going to say a few things.

Car Snooker, Pull a red car, then a colour, then a red, then a colour, then once you've got all your reds your colours in order.

The person who would have been on reception, well thats their duty, they would have been able to say if the police had shot someone in the locale or not, so no futher police resources would have needed to be deployed to investigate.

The police posses a very good sense of humour, yes the OP stated he was a policeman, however

He did not use it to attempt to gain entry to a property
He did not use it to attempt to stop a vehicle
He did not use it in any way to act unlawfully (other than the impersonation aspect)
He did not use it in any way to gain in any way

I think that although it was a practical joke, and it wasn;t in the best possible taste, it won't go very far.

[solidmetalgear19]

While I do agree that the prank in itself was funny and a great payback, I also believe that the reprocussions for his actions "could" be severe.

That being said, allow me to play devils advocate for a quick second.

How do we know that this story isn't fabricated? Not that I'm accusing anyone of lying. I'm just throwing that possibility out there.

[Gravekeeper]

The police posses a very good sense of humour, yes the OP stated he was a policeman, however

He did not use it to attempt to gain entry to a property
He did not use it to attempt to stop a vehicle
He did not use it in any way to act unlawfully (other than the impersonation aspect)

I think that although it was a practical joke, and it wasn;t in the best possible taste, it won't go very far.

The law varies from state to state and between Canada and the US, however:

He did impersonate a police officer with the intent to deceive. Which is an offense in many places. He also used it induce another to take action under the guise of an officer. Also an offense in most places. While what he did isn't a felony under most laws, its still a misdemeanor and subject to a asskick of a fine and/or minor jailtime. ( Up here its $2000 max fine I think ).


Whether or not his story is true is a different matter ( Smells like BS ). But this has been an interesting litmus test of the CS community.

[Raieth]

I'll have to joint the group that says he left something out. Possibly the "Pyche!" right before he hung up.

Although a nice fantasy, if he didn't indicate that it was a prank then, what he did was WAY over the top.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Just to note, there has been outrage on a couple of fronts at this thread being allowed to stay, and yet, oddly enough, not a single report on it.

Well, it is clear that there are at least 2 mods involved in the thread itself, so... I'm just reading it now at page 5; if you and Raps hadn't already posted I probably would have given y'all a heads up.


I'm with GK, et al, also, if the story is true. I can see where the humor lies, but personally I don't find it funny. I didn't laugh reading it. I'm curious, though, and waiting to see if the OP to comes back to clear things up...

[Gurndigarn]

to me that read, cops don't do much anyway (not knocking rural cops, but i would have to say it's true they don't have a ton to do when it comes to solving crimes).

The problem is, there usually aren't a lot of them. I know all the local cops by face-- and I've never had any problems beyond one speeding issue about four years ago. When there is a problem, there's usually only one on duty to respond... and if they're tied up with someone screaming about a murder, something important may get passed over.

[rerant]

After reading the post and laughing my ass off, then reading every single reply that stretched six pages, here's my take, if anyone cares to read it:

The prank itself was great.
The way it was executed (no pun intended) was not.
What I could imagine happening if the parents went to the police station is the cops looking into what they were there for, finding nothing relating to what they were saying, and informing them that they were obviously at the receiving end of a prank.
Likely the police will look into it further (depending, I would guess, on how serious an issue they view it to be) and should they find that it's a punishable offence by the OP action will be taken.

Sorry if I don't see this as a major problem as others do, but more than anything it's likely the OP knows his police force a little better than we do.
I mean, I would never pull something like that where I live, but I live in one of the largest cities in my country.
Now if I lived in butt-fuck nowhere Saskatchewan and knew that my police force consisted of 35 guys I went to high school with and their dads then I might be a little more tempted.

[blas]

I have to agree with GK, Broomjockey et all...

That little brat did deserve some revenge, but not in that way. The best thing to do once you discovered who she really was would have been to charge her or her parents with the cost of the pizza. As innocent as her parents were in this situation, sometimes parents have to pay for their kids' stupidity.

This went way too far.

Edit to add: I was quite late to this thread, and didn't really read all the other pages. I will say, as a former flame of a pizza boy, they do not find prank orders amusing. Also, this little twit was an amateur. A real prank would be ordering at prime time, and ordering 10+ pizzas, all with different toppings. That's what prank callers did to the guy I was dating who worked at Dominos.

[myswtghst]

I've been following this thread, reading the responses, and I have mixed feelings on many things. I apologize if this is long, I'm trying to organize all the thoughts.

I do think that the mods have done the right thing. Raps wanted this to be debated, and maybe have some people give the OP some not so positive feedback, and Ree and the rest of the mods have done a good job keeping an eye on it, so we don't get out of hand or start throwing personal attacks around. So long as no one reported it as being offensive, I've no idea why they should've taken it down. We've all been reminded, many times, that all we need to do is report the thread if we feel it's inappropriate.

As to the truthfulness of this thread - I'd believe it could happen, and it's possible the OP really did it...or knew someone who did...or heard about it from a friend of a friend or other "trustworthy" source. As I don't personally know the OP, I have no way of knowing if it's truth, fiction, or some mix of both.

If it is true, I think many people on here are taking very strong view points without nearly enough evidence to back them up. To me, the prank is funny, but a bit over the top - he did go too far. But, without knowing about where he lives, or the temperament of the police dept there, it's hard to say how this will turn out.

I live near the city of Chicago - this shite would never fly with our PD, not even the local burb police. They're not the type to have a great sense of humor. Granted, no one in my area (middle class to affluent burbs) would believe someone had a shot gun on hand either. So the prank probably would have failed right there.

If the OP lives in a rural-ish area, as noted, the police force may be more "one on one" and into the community, and possibly with a better sense of humor. And regardless of the size of the town, the police force should be aware enough that if the mother came/called in, asking about a shooting that she had already been contacted about, they wouldn't immediately send out manpower - I'm assuming the mom isn't going to call 911 and request an officer go to the address - she would assume the police are already involved, right?

So I do think the people worried that the OP wasted officers' time and/or put others at risk by diverting manpower are probably worrying over nothing. Chances are, mom called in/went in, spoke to Dispatch, and was informed that no such shooting occurred, and/or that no such officer (too lazy to go back to the OP and pull the fake name) was employed in that town. Since mom already knows that daughter committed a prank call, she probably will figure out pretty quickly that they were pranked in return.

And if mom calls the shop to request pizza boy be punished, or mom involves the police/the police involve themselves in the matter, it's not any of our decision what kind of punishment will be handed down. Honestly, I think pizza boy deserves a bit of a talking to about the wisdom of pulling pranks like this, and needs to be aware that, next time, he might just want to advise mom of daughter's antics, possibly requesting she pay the bill for the pizza - getting daughter in trouble would be revenge enough for me.

[Andara Bledin]

As a story, the OP is pretty funny.

Right up until the part about the dead pizza boy. At that point it stops being even remotely funny since he's reportedly talking to an innocent bystander.

When it comes to death, I have absolutely no sense of humor. Most highly empathic types likely feel similar. Thus the strong reactions.

Plus, if you're going to do a prankback on someone, you should at least try to remain somewhat annonymous. Or if you can't do that, then at least do something that isn't so likely to have the possibility to bite you in the ass.

.... and for those talking about not taking the OP at face value... that's the face he presented, so that's the face I'm going to respond to.

^-.-^

[Foxglove8778]

But this has been an interesting litmus test of the CS community.

This is true....

[SilverOrb]

Ok so I agree that it went a little far, was bad, wasted time for a lot of people... But I also thought that it was funny as hell and want tips on destroying some of my own retail demons.

[PsychoSamurai]

I would like to remind everyone who've stated that the OP should have just told the mother and charged them for the pizza.....

You're assuming that the mother would actually punish her kid - despite the fact that in numerous SC threads it's shown that the chance of that happening isn't the greatest.

As I've said already, In spite of the overboard nature of the payback, even if the mother/daughter were completely braindead and/or "entitlement whores", the girl will DEFINATELY think twice about pulling a prank delivery again. As for the mother, it may have been a "wake up call" on a number of levels - or she may still think her daughter is always right.

[Damien]

As a story, the OP is pretty funny.

Right up until the part about the dead pizza boy. At that point it stops being even remotely funny since he's reportedly talking to an innocent bystander.

When it comes to death, I have absolutely no sense of humor. Most highly empathic types likely feel similar. Thus the strong reactions.

Plus, if you're going to do a prankback on someone, you should at least try to remain somewhat annonymous. Or if you can't do that, then at least do something that isn't so likely to have the possibility to bite you in the ass.

.... and for those talking about not taking the OP at face value... that's the face he presented, so that's the face I'm going to respond to.

^-.-^

Have to agree with this statement.

My dad was a police officer and lost count the amount of times that pranks like this occurred - the joke was not considered funny, especially in the area where my dad was stationed.

I feel for the mother as well - this may (not saying "did") have put a wedge between mother and daughter.

..and no, before I get flamed for my opinion, I do not in any way condone the pranks on the pizza place at all.

But, sorry of people do not like my opinion, but the use of death, hence guilt, in my opinion is sick and intolerable

back to lurking