This Mario prank got 5 people arrested

When 5 teenagers left dozens of cardboard Mario question mark blocks around their town, they didn't expect police to treat their prank as a danger to the public! This simple Super Mario Bros-inspired prank quickly ballooned out of control, ending with all five teenagers being referred to PROSECUTORS. Let's find out about the Mario prank which went too far!

SOURCES

CREDITS

MUSIC USED
- Demise from Virtue's Last Reward
- Logic and Trick from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Transient Tranquillity from Zero Time Dilemma
- Separation of Lovers from Tomodachi Collection
Other music from Epidemic Sound

[TheBreadPirate]

I'm glad the judge saved the day! Finally, someone with common sense.

[Jyrrex]

I know not everyone plays videogames, but it really is weird that almost no one recognized the question mark block from Mario

[xorinzor]

You know you're way too paranoid when anything you're unfamiliar with is being interpreted as a bomb.
Bet Randall never got a nintendo as a kid and just wanted to get his revenge now. Glad to hear at least the prosecutor had some common sense.

[CormDaCrow]

The church, the police, the Hazmat people, the bomb squad, and multiple people who called in, and not a single one recognised it?

[_Rhatsody]

Prosecuting teenage girls for a childish prank is stupid. Especially when the context was discovered

[quagsir]

Imagine if they put cut-out bob-ombs in the blocks with the regular power-ups, wonder how lucky they'd get with the lawyers.

[davidzea-smith]

A similar story happened in Boston less than a year later.
As promotion for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, Adult Swim hired Peter “Zebbler” Berdovsky and Sean Stevens to make and hang up LED displays of the Mooninites characters from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force TV show across Massachusetts in mid to late January 2007, but on January 31st, at 8 am, a civilian spotted one of the displays above Sullivan Station and promptly called the police. Because of the exposed wires, they identified as a bomb, called the bomb squad, destroyed it and sent the city into panic. Between 2 and 3 pm, a police analyst identified the character and the police concluded that it was just a publicity stunt. However, Berdovsky, Stevens *and* WB were the ones who blamed for this misunderstanding.
I just don’t think people should get punished for a bomb scare if the scare wasn’t intentional and the “bomb” in question turned out to not be a threat. Kinda defeats the purpose of bomb scare if it wasn’t even a bomb and the scare was accidental.

[ROCKET-]

I feel like the question blocks from Mario are so recognizable that the police have no excuse, even if they never played Mario before

[mahougesu]

Honestly, it's sad that the girls had to write letters of apology to the investigators. It should have been the other way around. These were teenagers with their whole lives ahead of them and wholesome intentions and they were likely terrified that they were gonna have to spend time in jail and their whole lives with criminal records because of a terrorist attack that never actually happened. I understand being genuinely concerned about a possible bomb threat but this whole situation could've just been laughed off if the chief of police had any ounce of the sense of humour the target audience for this prank had. Dude sounds miserable.

[fiftyskoopaklub]

Honestly imagine being that cop and deciding that prosecuting teenage girls for hanging some Mario boxes up is worth your time. Dimwit.

[marslensart]

I’m sorry but the thumbnail is actually the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Something about sad Mario saying “bomb threat” just really brings a tear to my eye.

[DonutBurger]

Kind of insane how they immediately assumed it was a bomb. That definitely would not have been my first assumption.
Well, it's good to see Victor at least had common sense.

[Hi_Just_Fred]

I understand why they were suspicious of a bunch of boxes suddenly appearing around town, and I understand why someone seeing it asked an officer to look at it.
I do think bomb threats are a valid worry and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if a terrorist did disguise bombs as something harmless even if attention grabbing.
However AFTER they were investigated with no harmful signs found and AFTER one of the girl's admitted what it was this should've just been a case of lecturing them and moving on.
They should've suggested "if you wanna do something like this again let some officials know" not "you need to face consequences, time to prosecute you."
Like honestly Randall's concerns are fair enough given our world but he handled the situation horribly and came off as out of touch and dickish.
You give guidance to innocent youths not punish them harshly, not everyone needs to face "consequences" if their actions are not severe enough to warrant it regardless of how many people were sent to investigate it or how many people who didn't recognize them were worried.
Nowadays people pull much worse pranks and get away with it so this definitely feels like a product of the time kind've case.

[angelsartandgaming]

Example of why I'm not exactly a fan of police.

Seriously, why the hell did the police chief want them prosecuted so badly? I'm sure there are far more serious crimes to deal with. Oh wait, that doesn't pay.

[JamesTDG]

Just gotta love that people being scared without any thought caused these kids to be arrested. A simple joke twisted by absurd paranoia.

[DarrenC_]

It's really sad to live in a town filled with adults that have never played Mario games during their childhood. So sad.

[uncledot]

I remember this story when it first came out. I felt sorry for the girls, and was relieved to hear that the charges against them had been dropped.

[BgRdMchne]

This is why you don't go to the police without talking to an attorney first.

[minotaurinmaze]

I'm from Ravenna, Ohio and I've never heard this story before. I can not explain the shock that went through my body when you said my exact hometown. Like you said in the video, nobody has really heard of the place unless you live in the general area. It's absolutely crazy that something like this happened in the city I'm from, that I've never heard this story before, and that a YouTuber not even from that area that I watch has picked up on it!

[TheRealHedgehogSonic]

Are you telling me NONE of the cops knew what Mario is, and NONE of them decided to stop and actually think about what was going on with these fun little blocks?