Tomball: April Fool prank backfires

[seamusTX]

At Molly's Pub in Tomball (NW Houston suburb) Friday a worker sent a text message to the manager saying that she was being robbed. The manager called the police, who showed up in force. The police suspected a male customer of being the (non-existent) robber and took him into custody.

When the dust settled, the manager fired the worker who sent the bogus text message, who was the manager's mother. The good news for the woman is that she will not be charged with an offense.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/27404547/detail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=8047968" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[Crossfire]

Wow! Guess who won't be invited over for Easter dinner this year?

[seamusTX]

Mothers' Day might be a little awkward, too.

- Jim

[texanron]

Many years ago I worked at the fast food restaurant in Tomball that serves burgers and whos spokesman has a big round white head. The shift leader and myself were opening the place up and couldn't get the alarm shut off. After about 5 minutes or so two TPD squad cars rolled up. They weren't really happy that the alarm was going off for so long because two dumb teenagers couldn't figure out how to punch in the code. "Next time can y'all call us to tell us what is happening so were not hauling it over here thinking there is a burglary in progress?"

[Keith B]

I was working on a phone line once in a jewelry store. I accidentally shorted the line that was the direct burglar alarm to the police department. Unfortunately it was a silent alarm, so we had no idea it had been triggered. Two local officer came into the store, but as they came in, everyone was going about their normal business, so it was VERY apparent there was nothing happening, As well, I was standing behind the counter and when they saw a fellow officer (reserve office) with an sheepish look on his face they knew there was no robbery in progress, but they also knew who accidentally triggered it.

[jimlongley]

I was working on a phone line once in a jewelry store. I accidentally shorted the line that was the direct burglar alarm to the police department. Unfortunately it was a silent alarm, so we had no idea it had been triggered. Two local officer came into the store, but as they came in, everyone was going about their normal business, so it was VERY apparent there was nothing happening, As well, I was standing behind the counter and when they saw a fellow officer (reserve office) with an sheepish look on his face they knew there was no robbery in progress, but they also knew who accidentally triggered it.

I was placing the cables to put new phones in the teller's stations at the Key Bank on Swan Street in Albany NY. Because I couldn't work behind the counter during normal hours we made arrangements for me to be there from 0700 to 0900 to do the cabling. The branch manager got me inside and then went into his little office.

About 0800, as I was getting close to finishing the cabling, I stood up and looked out the windows, and thought I saw someone peeping around a corner looking in. After watching for a moment and seeing no movement, I hunkered back down behind the counter to continue my task.

A couple of minutes later I heard a sound like someone tapping on the windows, and looked up to find a large portion of the Albany Police Department standing outside the windows on two sides of the building, extremely well armed: Thompsons; Shotguns; and a couple of rifles I coundn't identify.

One officer was standing in the middle of the crowd, pointing at me, then all the guns, and beckoning me to the door.

Apparantly I had set off the silent alarm about 15 minutes before and the first officer arriving had noticed me crawling around behind the teller cages.

After a few minutes of quesitoning they turned us loose, but the manager got a lecture for not notifying the police that there was out of hours work being done.

[jimlongley]

At the school where my wife works, a teacher's prank also backfired.

Very pregnant, she dumped some water on the floor and told a student her water had broken. The response was almost instantaneous and universal, and the school nurse had her flat on her back on a gurney as the fire department was being called, before she was able to stop anyone.

Not too many people laughed.

[WildBill]

When the dust settled, the manager fired the worker who sent the bogus text message, who was the manager's mother. The good news for the woman is that she will not be charged with an offense. - Jim

She is very lucky she was not charged. Good for the manager too! He doesn't need that kind of people working for him.

[Katygunnut]

When the dust settled, the manager fired the worker who sent the bogus text message, who was the manager's mother. The good news for the woman is that she will not be charged with an offense. - Jim

She is very lucky she was not charged. Good for the manager too! He doesn't need that kind of people working for him.

I smell a civil suit from the customer that was wrongfully detained.

[tacticool]

I hope the manager's mom isn't named Molly.

[seamusTX]

Molly's Pub is a Houston-area chain. I'd be surprised if there were a real woman named Molly involved, or even a real Irishman.

- Jim

[WildBill]

Molly's Pub is a Houston-area chain. I'd be surprised if there were a real woman named Molly involved, or even a real Irishman. - Jim

I hope the manager's mom isn't named Molly.

Tina Osterloh is the lady's name, but they could be Irish. They have a good crowd on St. Patrick's Day.

[zero4o3]

when I worked at bestbuy we had one of our alarms malfunction while opening the store, we quickly had about 5 patrol cars show up, everyone seemed pretty friendly, I imagine that kind of thing happens just as much as actual robberies

[seamusTX]

Another one in Cleveland, Ohio: A woman who worked in city hall called her boyfriend on April 1 and told him there was a criminal shooter in the building. He called 911.

There was no shooter. Police arrested her and held her until today. They do not plan to charge her.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/04/oh ... ased-jail/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim