What may be one of the oldest pranks in the book, “Is your refrigerator running?” was not something Burger King® employees heard the night they received a prank call. Instead, the Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Burger King received a call instructing them to break all the windows inside the restaurant … and this isn’t the first time Burger Kind employees fell for it.
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According to Mashable.com, the employees received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Coon Rapids Fire Department. The caller claimed “the restaurant was pressurized and could explode.” The caller then told employees that they needed to break the windows to relieve the pressure. And the employees fell for it.
KSBY news reported on a similar prank in Morro Bay, California. According to KSBY, “Employees received a call from someone indicating they were a representative from the fire department advising of an emergency. The caller stated windows needed to be broken to ventilate the business.” And ventilate they did! The employees at this location also proceeded to smash all the windows in the building.
The Morro Bay Police Department issued a statement saying, “the fire department would generally not call a business directly to warn of such an issue. Recorded calls through a ‘Reverse 911’ system may be sent area wide to notify residents and businesses of major emergencies.”
Safety training should be a requirement for many business, but could there now be a need for “prank call” training?