Let's Go To Court! - 9: The April Fools Edition: Pranks and Hoaxes Gone Wrong

Episode Date: March 30, 2018

We’re celebrating April Fools’ Day with some of our favorite pranks and hoaxes. Brandi starts us off by talking about Balloon Boy. This is the story of the six year old boy who floated off in his dad’s flying saucer. Or did he? This story captivated the nation, but if you’re anything like us, you’ll have forgotten like 95% of it. Then Kristin talks about three pranks that ended in lawsuits. There’s the waitress who was promised a Toyota, but given a toy Yoda. Then there’s the civil servant whose co-workers duped him into thinking he had a looming deadline. The poor guy cut his vacation short. He even developed heart palpitations. We end with a woman who spent five days thinking a criminal was stalking her. You’ll never guess who was behind the prank. Seriously. You’ll absolutely never guess. It’s insane. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Office joke backfires, city bans more pranks,” The Globe and Mail “City hall boss on stress leave after prank” London Free Press “Three top city managers named in Howlett prank” London Free Press “Court Approves Lawsuit Against Toyota Over Cyberstalking Ad Stunt,” Wired.com “Toyota Loses a Marketing Lawsuit in Ruling That May Chill Advertiser Pranks,” CBS News “Woman Sues Toyota Over ‘Terrifying’ Prank,” ABC News “Saatchi Sued Over “Terror Marketing Campaign” for Toyota,” CBS News “Former Hooters waitress settles toy Yoda suit,” USA Today In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “The Ballad of Balloon Boy” by Justin Peters, Slate.com “Doubts Came Early in Balloon Incident” by Brian Stelter and Dan Frosch “Heene family says ‘balloon boy’ headlines ‘wasn’t a hoax’” by Elizabeth Murray, Today.com

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts. I'm Kristen Pitts. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court. On this episode, I'll talk about two cases where fun pranks ended in not-so-fun lawsuits. And I'll be talking about Balloon Boy, the six-year-old boy who floated off in his father's homemade flying saucer.

Or did he? Hello, listeners. We are working on the audio. Yes. We know we are self-aware. We know that I am very, very quiet. And that I am very, very loud. It's creating some issues.

We're doing our best to work them out. We've seen a counselor. The counselor said Brandi's a bitch, so I don't know. That's not what I heard her say at all. So Norman is, the good news is, folks, is Norman is very concerned. Which means that we'll get to the bottom of this eventually. But it's going to take a while. So this is so funny.

A couple days ago. Yes. And let's also turn this into a plug. Norman Caruso, the gaming historian, my fabulous husband, has a Blu-ray out, volume one, gaming historian. Get it on gaminghistorian.com. The gaminghistorian.com that's oh that's right thank you for remembering the website that i go to on a daily basis um so he came to me and he was like you know we were talking about the microphone situation talking about the audio and he was

getting frustrated and he goes he goes i've just because you know he's used to recording just by himself yeah and he goes i've just never had to deal with too hot and i thought he was gonna say like too hot girls too hot women so i was like and i was almost nodding like, yeah, I know. You're right. These are two hot podcasters. And it's a lot to deal with. And then he said, mics. I've never had to do it. Two hot mics.

But I was so ready for the compliment. I love it. So maybe some of you are thinking, the problem is you two are too hot. It's not and it turns out. It's a shock to me. So anyway, we'll work on our hotness and on the audio situation. Yes. Okay. So you came up with the idea to do this special situation. Yes. Okay.

So you came up with the idea to do this special episode. Oh, yeah. We should also say this is a very special episode. This is a very special episode. This is a themed episode, which we've never done before. No. I mean, the first episode was sort of themed. This is a themed episode. So this is a special April Fool's Day episode. This is your after school special. This is when we get really serious. This is our Easter

tribute. Okay, so we are doing an episode centered around pranks and such. Yeah. For me, I'm doing like pranks that turned into lawsuits. Yes. And mine's a prank slash hoax that turned into a lawsuit. All right. I'm excited for yours. Okay. I got my information for this story from an article on Slate.com by Justin Peters, a New York Times article by Brian Stelter and Dan Frosch, and

then a USA Today article by Stacey Nick. Cool. Okay. It's October 15th, 2009. Richard Heaney was in the backyard of his Fort Collins, Colorado home preparing to launch a large flying saucer-like helium balloon that he had built. With him were his wife, Mayumi, and three sons, Bradford, Ryo, and Falcon. The names. The names are great. This balloon that Richard Heaney had created was 20 feet wide.

Oh, my gosh. By five feet tall. And it was made out of aluminum foil, duct tape and string. Oh, my God. When you started this, I thought he was a scientist. Oh, we'll get there. Okay. So Richard Heaney fancied himself an amateur scientist. Yep. Okay.

And inventor. So he had invented this balloon as an alternative means of transportation. He intended for it to hover above traffic at 50 to 100 feet. Oh, my God. of traffic at 50 to 100 feet. Oh, my God. And he modeled it after the vehicles from the Jetsons. That is exactly what I was thinking just now. Yes.

Okay, but here's the problem with 50 to 100 feet. Like, that's not quite high enough, right? You got buildings and shit to worry about. I mean, but if he's modeling it after the Jetsons, you know, it wasn't, they were in the sky, but, you know, it's like the streets were invisible. They still, you know, paid attention. Yeah. I don't mean to school you on this, Brandi. Not the Jetsons.

But, you know, they did make their way around objects. So maybe that's just how he viewed his idiotic saucer. Yeah. So, um, the other thing about this is that I feel like aluminum foil is kind of expensive. So the cost in covering this thing in aluminum foil,

surely he went to like a restaurant Depot, right? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Um, so he said that like in its final form it was expected that aluminum would generate electric shock up to a million volts and that's how you would be able to you know kind of change direction go from side to side front to back

you know, kind of change direction, go from side to side, front to back. So now that we're all on the same page with his flying saucer. I'm picturing him in front of a dry erase board that's just filled with gibberish. Just numbers and, like, he thinks he knows what he's doing. Have you seen 21 Jump Street where Channing Tatum is doing the equation on the board? It's just like numbers everywhere. And he's like, science! That's exactly what it's like. Yes, I have seen that film.

I'm a big Channing Tatum fan. All right, so so far on this podcast, we've established that you like The Rock and Channing Tatum. Clearly, I've got a type. Just real puny guys. Okay. So, believing that the balloon was tethered and would hover just above the ground, the Heaney family, like, launched the balloon. So, I don't know exactly what that meant. It was, like, tied to a basket or some kind of wooden form under it

that it had been sitting on in the yard. And then they were going to release it from that. But then there was, like, supposed to be, like, a several-foot tether. So it would just rise and then hover, tie this tether. So they launch it, and then they watched in distress as the balloon was not tethered to anything and just floated off into the air. I just spat directly into the microphone. Wait, wait.

Our listeners loved that. Hold on. So they thought they had it stick to the ground, but oopsies, someone forgot? Yes, basically, yes. So they thought that it would just rise a few feet, and then? Yes, basically, yes. So, yes. So they thought that it would just rise a few feet and then there would be a tether there, then it would just, you know, stay there

and they could, you know, plan if they wanted to release it the rest of the way or whatever. Well, nobody attached the tether, so it just floated off into the fucking sky. Distress then turned to full-on panic when the family realized that falcon oh nowhere to be found okay i know this is messed up but when you shared the three kids names i really hope that falcon was the one who flew off it's so poetic yes bradford told his dad that he saw falcon playing in the compartment under the balloon shortly before the launch and believed that he may have climbed in there so the way this balloon worked it looked like a flying saucer right but then it had like

a compartment under it, a little box. And that box was made out of like really thin plywood and cardboard and duct tape. And then was attached by basically string and duct tape to the rest of the balloon. And it had like a little door because he intended this to be a vehicle for transport. And so it had a little door that you could enter this little compartment by. How old was Falcon? Six. Okay.

So fearing the worst that his six-year-old son climbed into this balloon and was now floating away in a homemade flying saucer, Richard Heaney did what any normal parent would do. Please say call 911. He called the local TV station. Oh my God. Yep. Yep. Normal stuff.

He asked them to send a news helicopter to follow the balloon. Oh, okay. And then he called 911. Mayumi and Richard told dispatchers that they had mistakenly launched the flying saucer. So that's what they called it. That's how they referred to it to emergency crews. They called it the flying saucer. So they had mistakenly launched it and then they noticed Falcon was missing.

It was approximately 1130 a.m. at this time. It was approximately 1130 a.m. at this time. Emergency crews were dispatched and followed the balloon for over 60 miles through three counties over the next two hours. Yes. So the news lady, the head of the station, was immediately skeptical. She was like, no, I'm not dispatching a news helicopter just because some crazy guy calls me and tells me his son has floated away. Absolutely. So she actually, like whoever Richard initially spoke to at the news station, they're like, we'll have the director of the station call you back.

So she called him back. And by this time, police were at the Heaney home. And so she was like talking to Richard and she's like, yeah, you know we're not gonna send a helicopter for this and he's like no this is this is real the police are here and so she has to speak to the police and only after receiving confirmation from the police that they were dispatching emergency crews did she say okay well we'll send the newscopter yeah because in a news, you get people calling up with all kinds of nutty shit. Oh, I'm sure. I can't even imagine.

All the time. The letters you get. Yeah. And there are some frequent flyers. Yeah. Yeah, I would not believe any of that. Yeah. So, emergency crews are following this balloon that's floating along.

It's really windy that day. Oh, my God. This balloon is just taking this crazy path. Hey, flying saucer. Respect. Yes, the flying saucer. So it goes through three counties over the next two hours. Planes were rerouted around the balloon.

It was believed to be reaching altitude of up to like 7,000 feet. Oh, my God. This poor kid. So crazy high. Flights at Denver International Airport were even grounded for a short time. This is kind of an unconfirmed thing. The sheriff's office said it early on, and then later they kind of said, no, no flights were canceled.

Okay. You know, kind of two different accounts on at least they were paused for a few minutes while the balloon passed they looked both ways um cnn and fox news both preempted their regular news coverage which included a town hall meeting with president obama to offer live coverage of the incident well Well, I mean, no offense to Obama, but he's not as exciting as Balloon Boy. Balloon Boy. CNN vowed to stay on the story until Balloon Boy was brought home safely. Of course they did.

This homecoming would happen shortly. But the story itself wasn't quite what it seemed. By the end of the day, we had learned that ba-balloon... Ba-ba-ba-ba-balloon boy! Oh no! I got so excited that I just spilled my water all over my lap! Hang on! Great! Now I'm wearing pee pants. Clearly, I can't handle any kind of balloon boy jokes. It's too much. Okay. By the end of the day, we had learned that Balloon Boy had never been inside the balloon. That he had been home all along, hiding in the attic.

Uh-huh. By the end of the week, we had learned that his unscrupulous parents had probably staged the entire thing as a stunt to stoke interest in a possible reality show. Oh, my God. That is so gross. Yes. Okay. See, I had forgotten so much of this story. That is so... Yeah.

That is nasty. Okay, so back to the day that it's happening. Yeah. It's now 1.35 p.m., so two hours since the, you know, mistaken... Right. I'm doing air quotes here, but I realize that doesn't really transfer on a podcast. We are so good at podcasting. We are expert podcasters.

You think the audio is bad. We're making all kinds of important gestures to each other that you can't see. So it's 1.35 p.m. and the balloon lands in Keensburg, Colorado. So as it's coming down, like they can tell for a while that it's winding down. It's going's gonna you know part of it has started to deflate really and yes with that expert craftsmanship and the news crews that are like you know the anchors that are you know commentating the footage they're like we're not going to show the point of impact we're on a delay here and like they're building to you know this big moment and so okay well and also you kind of feel kind of bad

for them they think that this thing's gonna bust into yeah and then a six-year-old kid's gonna be splattered all over the ground i'm sorry i spat into the mic again. So it finally lands in this kind of field in Keensburg, Colorado. An emergency crews rush to the aid of the six-year-old boy Falcon believed to be inside. People everywhere who are watching this news coverage are holding their breath as police and paramedics descend on the aluminum flying saucer. And then they watched in confusion as no little boy emerged from the balloon. Well, yeah, and I assume, like, no blood. Yeah, there was nothing.

Officials then became concerned that the boy had fallen from the balloon along the way. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. The sheriff's office reported that the door to the compartment under the balloon was unlocked. And a deputy believed that he had seen something fall from the balloon near Platteville, Colorado. Oh, my gosh. Now, I bet you're wondering how far Platteville is from this other place where we are. I'm assuming a long ways away. So I looked this up.

And on a non-aerial route, it is approximately 27 miles away. So it's probably like about halfway back along this route that this flying saucer took. Search and rescue crews were dispatched to double back along the route and search for the boy's body. Oh, my God. The Colorado National Guard assisted in the search with two helicopters, including a Blackhawk. a black hawk they called in the black hawk helicopter to search for this what would then be believed to be the remains of this six-year-old boy who had fallen from this balloon okay i've got my hand to my chest like an old timey woman i am horrified first of all i'm thinking how traumatizing would that be for those workers?

They think that a six-year-old has dropped. Yes. Yes. And then the other thing I'm thinking about is, how much fucking money did this cost? Yes. Okay. Yes. So, interesting that you ask that.

So, just the cost of these two National Guard helicopters to operate for one hour is $14,500. Yeah. Yeah. And that's just those two. Just those two helicopters. We're not looking at like the cost of all those people getting involved. Yeah. That's.

Yes. Then around 415, CNN announced that Falcon Heaney had been found safe. He had been found hiding in a cardboard box in the attic of the family's garage. He had never been in the balloon at all. And this was how long, supposedly, that he was in this box? So CNN announced it at 4 o'clock. So from the initial, like, they went on the news somewhere, I think, around 1. So, like, they're three, four hours into coverage when they're like, hold on.

Turns out Balloon Boy was never in the balloon. Yeah. He was hiding from his family. Attic Boy. Yes. He's now no longer Balloon Boy. Now he's now no longer balloon boy now he's attic boy so media kind of descends on the heaney yard they're all out front and richard heaney is just lapping it up he's

giving interviews to everybody he's taking every producer's business card and he is just loving it they agree to do an interview with wolf blitzer that night a live interview on tv so in this interview with wolf blitzer blitzer accidentally broke some news. So asked by his father why he had hidden in the garage attic and ignored searchers cries. Falcon replied, you guys said that we did this for the show. Oh, my gosh. Blitzer, though, apparently did not hear Falcon's answer because he just kept asking the family questions for another 30 minutes. And then finally, someone on Wolf Blitzer's end was like, hey, we need to circle back to that thing that Falcon just said.

Well, what were they asleep? I have no idea. Oh, my gosh. So they finally at the end get him to circle back to what Falcon had said. And this is the exchange near the end of the interview. Oh my God. Blitzer. Richard Heen, the father of little Falcon.

Richard, earlier in the show, I asked you to relay a question to Falcon. He said he was hiding in the garage for four hours. I asked you to ask him why he didn't come out after he heard you and his mom and everybody else screaming for him. And you said to him, falcon why didn't you come out and falcon said you guys said that we did this for the show and you said hmm what did he mean we did this for the show and richard heaney said i have i have no idea i think he was talking about the media they've been asking a lot of questions. So somebody asked him that earlier. Which is a weird fucking answer. It doesn't answer the question.

That's like, here's a bunch of words. Will you please stop asking me questions now? And so Blitzer says, do you want to ask him now? I don't know if he can hear me. What did he mean by what he said? We did this for the show. Do you want to ask Falcon? And Richard Heaney says, falcon they want to know they want to know why you were in the attic for so long and why you

um say it again blitzer says why he said he said we did this for the show and explaining why he didn't come out of the attic and richard heaney goes yes let me interrupt real quick i think i can see the direction you guys are heading on oh i love it because earlier you had asked the police officers the question the media out front we weren't even going to do this interview and i'm kind of appalled after all of the feelings that i went through up and down that you guys are trying to suggest something else. Okay. I am really appalled because they said out front that this would be the end and I wouldn't have to be bothered the rest of the week with any shows or anything.

So we said, okay, fine, we'll do this. So I'm just kind of appalled that you guys would say something like that, you know? Oh, he's the victim and so wolf blitzer goes no no we're not asking anything unusual you were asked earlier about if this was a publicity stunt you said it wasn't the police say it wasn't the rescue operation says it wasn't the only thing i wanted to clarify was why falcon had said earlier we did wasn't the only thing i wanted to clarify was why falcon had said earlier we did this for the show i just wanted to clarify i didn't understand what he was referring to so wolf blitzer didn't catch this initially yeah apparently was just willing to believe what richard heaney had to say. Oh, God.

That'd be tough in that moment on live TV. Yeah, I think it would be really tough on live TV. Because if they are truly victims and if this truly was just innocent, then yeah, you wouldn't want to offend anybody. Yeah, yeah.

But at the same time, you know that thing where people, they get way fired up and way offended. How dare you? And you kind of go, um, this doesn't seem like a normal reaction. So the Heeneys think that, you know, they've got Wolf Blitzer on their side. But investigators were starting to believe otherwise. They had received some tips from people

that this family was very media-centered. They'd been working on getting their own reality show. They'd been featured on Wife Swap. And Richard Heaney had said, like, it was the best thing that ever happened to his family. And so he had been pitching this idea for a reality show to TLC. And it would be kind of a mix of like myth busters

meets like uh amateur um inventor slash scientist show and he would do he would show all these inventions that he's made and do experiments and stuff like that and tlc was like they admit like and they even say like we were in the works with it for a little while, and then there seemed to be no interest in it. So we dropped the idea. But they had done, their episode of Wife Swap had done very well. They were voted, like, a fan favorite. And Wife Swap did, like, a thousand, like, their, I don't know, like, their thousandth episode, which sounds like a lot of Wife Swaps. Yes. Maybe it wasn't their third. Do not quote me, which sounds like a lot of wife swaps. Yes.

Maybe it wasn't their third. Do not quote me on what episode it was. Let's say hundredth. Yes. They did a special episode where they had fan favorites voted back. And the Heaney family was voted back to be one of the couples on this fan favorite episode. Okay, now I've got beef with this. Yes.

Because my favorite wife favorite episode. Okay, now I've got beef with this. Yes. Because my favorite Wiveswap episode, did you ever see the one with Curtis, the little guy? Norman, okay, this episode came out, I mean, what? Was this the kid that packs his bags? Yes, yes! It is my favorite clip. So, you know, this new mom comes in and she's all about health and fitness. And so she starts the the clincher for him was when she threw out the bacon.

Yep. And little Curtis goes, no, that's not the way it's going to be. Bacon is good for me. And so that came out 10 years ago. To this day, anytime Norman and I are around bacon we smell bacon we have bacon in the house one of us will say bacon is good for me and then he like storms into his bedroom and packs his little suitcase he He's got to go to Nana's house where there's bacon. I can relate.

Yes, I have seen that episode. I don't know how many episodes. I don't feel like I've seen that many episodes of Wife Swap. But I know that episode. I think because, do you remember, that was back when the soup was on. Yeah. And the soup, they'd play clips. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And oh, my God.

Yeah. It's just gold. Yeah, it is gold. gold you're gonna be going to the grocery store sorry that's what the dad says i'm picturing all these people who have no idea what we're talking about and this is just very strange yes anyway moving on okay so investigators are starting to think this isn't what it looks like right so they call richard heaney to the police department under the guise that they need him to come pick up his giant balloon meanwhile while he's at the police department because they believe that he is the he's the head of this operation okay so while

he's at the police department they come to the Heaney family home and execute a search warrant. Oh. And they find all of these YouTube shows that he had done and footage of the actual launch. Oh, my God. The day that it happened. The family was recording it. The day that it happened, the family was recording it. And so in the recording, the balloon goes up.

The family, everybody in the yard is like the family is present except for Falcon. And nobody seems concerned that Falcon isn't in the yard. The balloon goes up and Richard loses his fucking mind. He's like, nobody did the tether. You missed the fucking tether and watches as the balloon you know yes yes and then the recording ends without any mention of where falcon is uh-huh and so the police are like all right this isn't matching up with the story that they told about how they immediately were concerned about where falcon was and whatever and so they also believed that the balloon rose too high too quickly to be carrying

a six-year-old boy so they reached out to a physics professor at colorado state university oh like an actual scientist yes to see if the balloon was even even capable of carrying a boy falcon size and it turns out that while the compartment would have been strong enough to hold him so it was the plywood was thick enough to hold him and it was attached enough to be able to hold him the balloon would not have been powerful enough to carry him okay he would have weighted it down too much and it wouldn't it maybe would have been able to briefly lift off the ground but they wouldn't have been able to climb like that so it wasn't even possible for him to be inside this balloon uh-huh but see to me that doesn't prove a hoax yet it just proves that right we're dumb they

shouldn't have even thought okay yes so then they hear the news you know that i mentioned about the tlc show that tlc had recently been like nope we're we're ending these communications the show's going nowhere no one's interested sorry and then they found evidence and i don't know what this evidence is that they had been planning this launch missing son situation over a period of two weeks in order to regain interest in their reality show surely they didn't take notes on that they had to have taken yeah they had to have done something really dumb and it's my understanding that when spoken to separately mayumi pretty much owned up to it right away yeah it's like yeah this this was planned this was not yeah this was not a real thing we we planned this and somebody else came forward and um it's unclear to me how he knew the Heaney family,

but he sold his story to Gawker about how he was part of planning the hoax. For more information on Gawker, please check out episode three. Thank you for plugging that. But I mean, I feel like if there's such attention whores, then yeah,

that makes total sense that they would be blabbing to coworkers and neighbors and friends. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so on October 18th, 2009. So what's that?

Like three, four days after. Yeah. Three days after. Okay. The, the, the whole incident.

Larimore County Sheriff, Jim Alderdon. yeah three days after okay the the whole incident laramore county sheriff jim alderdin called the incident an elaborate hoax an elaborate hoax did he have trouble speaking he was so traumatized um and he announced that they expected to file felony charges against Richard and Mayumi Heaney. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I think this part, I think worth noting here, is that initially, when it first happened, the sheriff was like, oh, this is a horrible tragedy. You know.

Yeah. We thought this was horrible. You know, it turns out it's just an innocent, like a kid just playing. You know, we don't believe that there was any ill will here at play and we don't believe that this was this was a hoax of any kind so he then when he announces three days later that it is a hoax i bet he was pissed he says we knew from the beginning oh we said all that stuff so the heenies wouldn't know we were onto them. I know what it means.

I just wanted to make sure you knew what it meant. No. No. Oh. Oh, yeah, we totally knew this was a hoax the whole time. We just didn't want them to know that we were onto them, so we had to say that we didn't know it was a hoax. You guys are probably thinking that I'm pretty stupid, but actually I'm brilliant. Oh, come on, buddy.

There's no shame in just saying... No! They fooled a bunch of people! Yes. And I think going through that progression that you just laid out, it's like, that's what anyone would think. And even if there were red out, it's like, that's what anyone would think. And even if you, even if there were red flags, it's like, that would not be the time for red flags. You know, it's like, okay, the big thing is to save this child. The big thing is everyone's safe. Now we get into, oh, wait, these are reality TV stars or aspiring to be.

Aspiring reality TV stars. Which is even more pathetic. Yes. stars or aspiring to be inspiring reality, which is even more pathetic. Yes. Um, so then on October, I'm sorry, on November 12th, 2009, Richard was charged with one count of attempting to influence a public servant, which is a felony. What? That seems like a weird charge.

That sounds like bribery, but obviously it's not because then they just say bribery. charge that sounds like bribery but obviously it's not because then they just say bribery yeah so he told a lie to a public servant to get what he wanted so okay i guess that's the closest charge to look out everybody yeah they had to get him on something and it sounds like that was that was the thing um i'm guessing because that's like the felony level and then mayumi was charged with one count of false reporting to authorities okay so she said you know yes we really believed he was missing initially and even though she i don't like any of this what do you want them to be charged with well okay i guess i haven't heard the whole punishment but i think there needs to be a really big punishment for that amount of resources money time yeah you know that's yeah that's awful okay continue because now i want to hear that they

are in prison to this day they're well no you're ready to be bummed yeah so the heenies ultimately ended up entering guilty pleas in accordance with the plea agreement. Richard was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Yes. I can tell by the look on your face that you do not find that satisfactory. I am livid about that. 90 days in jail. 30 days he had to serve in jail.

And then for the remaining 60, he had no, no work release program, but he still had to come back to the jail and the evenings. Fuck that. I know. Um, he was also sentenced to four years of probation and 100 community service hours during each of those years. So 400 community service hours as well. I'm boiling. Yeah yeah that's not nearly

enough that's nothing it's nothing i'm sorry when people like yeah when people go to jail for a million years because they smoke pot like yes um and this is just such a huge waste of resources. Yes. Yes. An intentional huge waste of resources. Yep. Mayumi was sentenced to 20 days in jail to be served after Richard so that somebody would be home for the children during the whole time. And she got to serve hers in weekend jail. So she went to jail every weekend for 10 weeks. Christian, you're so pissed right now. I'm so pissed.

And it's frustrating me because I feel like I'm not doing a good job putting it into words. It's just on my face. It's all over your face. putting it into words it's just on my face it's all over your face oh yeah i guess i'm also surprised that they were allowed to keep their kids not so here's the thing that i thought about that like i feel like they forced their kids to do this crazy scenario i cps should have at least looked in on this yeah i'm not saying they should have for sure been taken away. But I think that sounds like, okay, that cannot be a good environment. Let's investigate this.

That's insane. And maybe they did. Maybe I didn't come across that in my research. But Wikipedia said nothing about it. Good enough for me. Week in jail. Week in jail. Yes. week in jail week in jail yes she was also given four years of probation and 120 hours

total of community service so i don't know if she had to do it like on a 30 hours a year type of probably just whenever she felt like it from home online community The couple was also ordered to pay $36,000 of restitution, which I also don't feel like is enough. I'm glad they were made to pay something. I mean, at this point, the bar is very low. Yes. $36,000 of restitution. And this is the best part. I feel like this is so dumb.

And they had to write a formal letter of apology to each agency involved in the search what yeah that's part of their sentence no dear so and so i am so sorry that i wasted your time what the hell yeah that's the punishment when you're in elementary school you write the letter yeah and i'm sorry what are these agencies gonna do with this stupid letter from these two reality yes and i'm sorry a forced apology yeah boy yeah that's gonna mean something just wait did they have the best lawyer on the planet? I guess. To them, this was horrible because they wanted no jail time and they thought, you know, that this was really extreme.

It is extreme when you want no consequences. Yes. Richard later said that he only took the plea to protect his wife from being deported because she is a Japanese citizen. In a 2015 interview on the Today Show, he maintained that the incident was not a hoax at all. Oh, come on. It wasn't a hoax, Richard Heaney said. It's what I do. I invent.

So we were trying to keep it on the low down in the backyard. We didn't want our neighbors to see us building it. First of all, that doesn't fucking explain anything. No, it doesn't. And I hate to point this out, but it makes that apology note seem really insincere. I know we all put a lot of stock in that. So when like he made this comment about how, you know,

he only took the, um, the plea deal, like the prosecution was like, we don't really take very kindly to people saying this. And, and this could be potentially in violation of his plea agreement. And we could potentially,

you know, go back and. Oh, so he punished, they punished him really hard. Oh, agreement and we could potentially you know go back and oh so he punished they punished him really hard oh okay they could potentially have punished him further kristen they chose not to they need some more resentful people on that force like give me somebody really bitter who's like that's it that's it coming after you um during that same today show interview richard said that he only pleaded

guilty and i mentioned this before that because the threat of deportation of my wife was imminent when the deal came on the table i had to take it so my i'm sorry i totally fucked this up hey don't get into my territory that's my job to read things and then, like, go off the rails. When that came on the table, I had to take the deal that they proposed to me. So my attorney said, Richard, it's only a 90-day stay. And that was a long time for me. But it really went by quickly. Asked if they would do anything differently as they look back on their experience uh-huh richard said no and emphasized that the experience helped them get to where they are today with their

three sons pursuing their passion for music and a rock band. Oh my God. They're trying to Hanson this thing. Yes, Kristen, that's right. In 2015, it was reported. No. That the Heenies were now living in Florida and the three sons were in a metal band called the Heenie Boys, where Falcon served as the lead singer.

They had self-released three albums, including one called Fingered It Out. No, ew, no, are you serious? I don't even know what that means. I have a suspicion. And that album had a track called Balloon Boy No Hoax. These are the opening i watched the video for balloon boy no hoax yeah i want to listen fucking terrible first of all these are the opening lyrics to balloon boy first of all how's the singing terrible okay okay ever have one of those days everything went wrong

the shift hit the fan and who the hell is Wolf oh my god the family also put out a series of comic books an assortment of heeny boys merchandise including headbanger energy shots which feature a picture of falcon on the bottle

and promised a cool numbing sensation and a six hour wet mouth. Ew, what? What is that? I don't know. Ew. It was also sugar free. Thank you. Thank you for that. Six hour wet mouth.

Six hour wet mouth six hour wet mouth for all your wet mouth needs oh gosh a little thing I'd like to note here is that the website for Heaney Boys has not been updated since 2015 so it looks as if the band may have broken up.

Oh, no. Well, that's a shame. So, Heaney's invention for an alternative mode of transport didn't work out. But I'd like to close with going over some other inventions that he has that maybe might take off. Please. Maybe not literally. Some of Richard's other inventions include bear scratch.

The back scratcher that attaches to a wall, allowing a person to scratch his back like a bear. No! Sells for $19.99. That seems really steep. Next one is your shakedown. All one word. The device shakes the lingering remains of items from jars such as ketchup and mayonnaise.

There is a home use version and a restaurant use version. And it sells for six payments of $29.99. What? How much are people struggling with ketchup bottles? I don't know. And how expensive even worst case scenario

the ketchup's stuck, you buy a new bottle. I mean oh my God. The last one is Heaney Doody Truck Transformer. Wait, say that one more time. Heaney Doody Truck Transformer. Heaney Doody is also one word. Of course. Ofaney Duty is also one word. Of course. Of course it is.

This truck robot loading device picks up heavy items and places them in the bed of a truck. The price is not listed, but a 2011 Autoblog.com entry said it cost almost $14,000. The website for it is currently offline. Oh, you're kidding. Probably because so many people ordered it. So many people ordered it. And they were like, we can't do this anymore. We're on to the next thing.

Oh, my God. That was amazing. That was so good. So good. There was a lot in there that i didn't know about the balloon boy i knew next to nothing yeah about it i mean yeah holy crap that was so good it was pretty uh it was pretty fun one you should really get on and watch the metal videos for the heeny boys i'm going to you don't even have to tell me. The second you said they started a band, I was like, what's the earliest that I can look on my

phone? Just watch the videos. I have to hear this beautiful music. Oh, are we doing a podcast? No, you're talking to me and I'm just leaving at random times to pee and get more beverages. You didn't have enough beverages over there. I like a good jolt, you know? Yeah, that's why I drank this Diet Coke.

A single, sad Diet Coke. I drank one beverage. No ice this time. Although I was so concerned about hearing the ice in that cup on that episode. You couldn't hear it at all. No, you can't thing. You know, this is really more of a private podcast. We don't want other people listening. My goodness. I am surprised though, that you brought Diet Coke. goodness gracious i am surprised though that you brought diet coke yeah so the reason that i brought this diet coke uh-huh is because i went to get my nails done this morning before i came and they gave me this diet coke at the nail salon okay and then i didn't have to stop for a beverage on my

way that makes sense because i saw it and i was like she normally doesn't do carbonated stuff because she's so paranoid about burping i opened opened it at the nail salon, took like one sip and then allowed it to go a little bit flat so that I could drink it during the podcast. Okay. I'm thinking now because every time I'm at the grocery store, I always think, should I get Brandy some diet Coke and just have it at the house? And so, but then I always think, no, she doesn't want anything carbonated. So the trick is, an hour before you come over, I will open it. You want to let it breathe?

Yes. Like a fine wine. Like a fine wine. Should I pour it into a decanter? Yes. The only way I take my deck, I pour this into a decanter and then back into the can. Because you didn't want to seem snobby?

No. Okay, so we had this idea to do an April Fool's episode. Yeah. So here's the thing. I found one prank that I liked. I wrote it up. It was like a page. I was like, shit.

That's not enough. That's not enough at all. So I wrote it up. It was like a page. I was like, shit. That's not enough. That's not enough at all. So I found another one. And so it's, I'm doing a couple. I love it. I'm going to start with an amuse-bouche. It's going to be multiple courses. So this is just a little thing. This, this is the story that made me think, oh, we should do an April Fool's episode. This is the story that made me think, oh, we should do an April Fool's episode. Have you heard the one about the Hooters waitress? No. Okay.

Does she walk into a bar? She sure does. So 2002 at this Hooters, I think it was in Florida. I don't know. Probably Florida. Florida's crazy. I know. Yeah, for real. For real.

So at this Hooters location where she was working, they were told, hey, whoever sells the most beer tonight will win a Toyota. So she gets super excited. She does a great job. She sells a ton of beer. She wins the contest. She's so excited. They put a blindfold on her. They take her out to the parking lot. She thinks she's going to get this Toyota.

They take the blindfold off. They hand her a toy Yoda. Oh, God. The Star Wars toy. Yes. She's pissed. Yeah. Totally, totally pissed. The manager said this was an April Fool's joke, but one of the articles I saw said this happened in May, so he's doing it wrong. A poorly timed April Fool's joke. April Fool's!

Yeah. So eventually, you know, she quit. She sued. She ended up settling with Hooters and her lawyer said that now she can buy any toyota she wants so i liked that story so i i decided that i wanted to do a couple of these you know pranks that turned into lawsuits also i think that sucks. That does suck. Yeah. That's fucking terrible. I think it's especially sucky to play on, you know, a waitress isn't making a ton of money. No.

And so you tell someone that they could win a car. Sorry, you're being so awkward. What is going on with you right now? I feel like I have to sit up to the side to see you over my bike. I can't sit up to the side to see you over my bike. So since you guys can't see the weird shit Brandy's doing, you said no. And then you rested your chin on your fist like you were posing for a Glamour Shots portrait. It seemed super.

I don't know what to do with my hands. Super sarcastic and aggressive. No, I do think it is terrible. Oh, do you? Well, I'm glad we're on the same page. So now moving on to another one. Yes. Pranks turn into lawsuits. Got it.

Here we go. Do you understand what I'm doing? I think that everybody's following. I think Norm knows what you're doing. You know, I just... Peanut, Peanut, do you know? I realized as soon as I said that that I have explained this like five times. Like people are going to be like, wait, what?

What is happening? Pranks turn into lawsuits. Thank God I've got this rewind button. I thought? Pranks that turned into lawsuits. Thank God I've got this rewind button. I thought you said banks that turned into pants. I would listen to that. Oh, no. It's a silent laugh. It's too much.

Oh, God. Okay, so. Okay, so... Okay, so tell me again. We're doing pranks that turned into lawsuits. I almost spat iced tea everywhere. So, Brandy, okay, pay attention, pay attention. So, these are pranks, right? Just jokes. But then they turned into lawsuits.

I totally am on board now. I get it. Do you want to write it down so you can refer back to what I'm doing here? I know it's complicated. I know it's super complicated. We'll get through it, though. Yes. This episode is only for really smart listeners.

Yes. Yeah. If you is only for really smart listeners. Yes. Yeah. If you had any kind of academic struggles, you should not listen to this one. Okay. Glenn Howlett. He had a job as the community services manager for London, Ontario. I love how serious you are right now. You're with it.

Okay. This was a big job. He earned more than $155,000 a year. He controlled more than a third of the city's budget. More than 400 employees reporting to him. He'd been at this job for almost 30 years. Okay. Yeah.

Big deal. Yeah. I'm saying this only because sometimes in these articles, like when they just do a blurb of hilarious April Fool's pranks gone wrong. They, I don't know, you get the idea that, oh, this was just some kind of low level civil servant guy. No, big deal. So in early November one year, he was enjoying a vacation in Alberta with his wife. When his coworkers, and by the way, we're not talking low-level co-workers here. We're talking about highly paid, upper management, six-figure types, emailed him with an urgent message.

They said the deadline for this massive, time-consuming project was being brought forward. I'm not going to get too into the weeds on the project, but it was called a corporate renewal plan. It was super controversial. People in unions were pissed. They were like, this is going to hurt workers' rights. You know, big, big deal. And they're saying, oh, you're on vacation? It's due in two weeks, buddy.

Oh, shit. He freaks out. Because the people who pulled this prank did a really good job with it. They made it look like a resolution. It was on official city letterhead. It was certified by the clerk's office. This was not just some, you know, dumb little email in Comic Sans. Okay?

That is the worst spot ever! It sucks. It sucks. Especially if it's like Comic Sans and you know it's not black like they always throw it in a different color it's teal and their email signature has an inspirational quote in it yes okay so glenn freaked out understandably he called his staff he was like guys we we all have to pitch in on this. It's due in two weeks. Let's get rolling.

He cut the vacation short, and this is the saddest part. He went to Staples. Oh, my God. Imagine, you're on vacation, you cut the vacation short, and you have to go to Staples and get a bunch of office supplies. Oh, gosh. So he gets a ton of paper, and, of course, they also told him, hey, the former city manager will be on a conference call listening in on your report. And as soon as you're finished, he's going to give a full critique.

Oh, hell. Yeah, so as if there wasn't enough pressure. Here, we're going to add this on. Poor Glenn. He had heart palpitations. He had to go to his doctor because, I mean, the stress was just, you know, it was taking a physical toll on him. So the doctor administered an electrocardiogram. Sounds serious.

And told him he needed to take time off work. He was like, for your health, you need to slow down. Take some time off. At some point, I assume around this time, he found out that it was all a hilarious joke. Oh my God, that's not a hilarious joke at all. But I wrote hilarity ensued. So he was pissed, understandably.

Yeah. And he sued. And the thing he said, and I totally agree with this, was this was not a prank. This was harassment. Yeah. Because to me, a prank, no. A prank is fun. And by the way, this was not in April.

I kind of assumed maybe they moved the deadline to April 1st. No, this happened back in November. So this, to me, this sounds mean spirited. Sounds like a bunch of jerks. Yeah. So, of course, the city offered to settle. You know, they didn't want some big lawsuit. Yeah. But what they really wanted was for Glenn to sign a confidentiality agreement.

And Glenn was like, okay, I will settle and I will retire two years ahead of time. But you're not going to shut me up. No. So he went to the London Free Press, which I think is just their local paper, and was like, hey, heads up. Here are the three high-ranking employees who pulled this prank on me my god city manager bob blackwell acting finance manager vick coat and city engineer peter steblin i love that he did that i do too um because i think especially Because I think, especially when it's the government, and it's like, okay, somebody pulled this prank, totally unprofessional, wasted time, wasted resources.

You should know that, yeah, it's the six-figure people who pulled this. It wasn't just some low-level group. Yeah. The six-figure important people were wasting each other's time and making this a bad work environment. Yep. Yeah. The six figure important people were wasting each other's time and making this a bad work environment. Yep. Do you wonder how I feel about it? So this all went down in 2004.

So we're doing pranks. Turned into lawsuits. Did you forget? No. Did you forget what I'm doing? I checked my note. Good. Good.

So this all went down in 2004. The year we graduated from high school. The year we graduated from high school. The year we graduated from high school. Yes. He'd planned to retire in 2006. You know, instead, he retired early, and the city paid him $20,000. But Glenn said that if he'd stayed on another two years, he would have gotten an extra $20,000 a year from his pension. Right.

But I think he was just kind of like, you know done yeah and he was making really good money so i i don't feel too bad about that so the consequence for all that after all that london city councillors passed a bylaw prohibiting employees and politicians from playing practical jokes on each other. Oh, my God. They can't do it anymore in London, Ontario. No practical jokes. Seriously. Wow. They're banned. Wow.

Yeah. Three assholes have to ruin it for everybody. I feel like some people don't know how to play pranks. That's not a prank. No. That was mean-spirited. Yes. I don't know how you could

possibly look at that and say oh look at this funny harmless thing we're doing to somebody i think the question you have to ask if you're wanting to play a prank on somebody is first do i like this person because to me it sounds like nobody liked him yeah and i don't it's kind of like teasing somebody if if you really like them and you've got that kind of friendship, then it's all in good fun. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe it's not. Maybe.

But, you know, that's like the first hurdle. Yeah. Well, I think the other question that you have to ask is, how would I feel if this was done to me? Yeah. I tell you what, you cut my vacation short. I'm losing my mind. Oh, my God. Oh, gosh. Yeah. It would losing my mind. Oh, my God. Oh, gosh.

Yeah. It would not be good. Yeah, no. I've got another one for you. And again, so this is a prank. Okay, a prank that turned into a lawsuit. Yes, very good. I finally got it.

It took a while, as I knew it would. I knew I was bringing some complicated stuff. Okay, this one is really crazy. Okay. Okay. So excited. So one day, a woman named Amber Dueck started receiving strange emails from a man she did not know. He said his name was Sebastian Bowler and that he lived in England.

So she's in LA. That sounds like an English name. Sebastian Bowler? Yeah. Yeah, mm-hmm. All right, I'm on board so far. Okay. He said he was running from the law

and he knew where she lived. What? Mm-hmm. And he was going to come to her place to lay low for she lived. What? Mm-hmm. And he was going to come to her place to lay low for a while. What? In one of the emails, he wrote, Amber, mate, coming to Los Angeles.

Gonna lay low at your place for a bit till it all blows over. He included links to his MySpace page. This was a while back, obviously. So in one of the articles, they included this picture of him. And he's laying on what appears to be a street. And the camera is on the ground in front of him. And he's got both his hands and fists. One is kind of close to the camera.

One's like more by his head, like he's about both his hands and fists. One is kind of close to the camera. One's like more by his head. Like he's about to punch you. And he's got two big like gold blingy rings. You know, like one on each hand. And he's scowling. And he's about like 25. There's a really pretty tree in the background. That's what you took from the picture?

There's a beautiful tree in the background? The funny thing is, it's like, I don't know. To me, it was like, okay, he's clearly trying to be tough, but at the same time, it's clearly like a park behind him. You know, it just seemed kind of, you know, anyway. He also had pictures of a pit bull on his page named Trigger. And he described himself on the MySpace page as a fanatical English soccer fan who enjoys drinking alcohol to excess. Who among us is not?

I like spelling it out, though. Like, hey, I like to know my limit and then just blow past it. So Amber freaked out. She had no idea who he was, but he clearly knew her. She couldn't eat. She couldn't sleep. She had trouble concentrating at work. She was really freaked out.

More emails come in. In one message, he included her address and wrote, Looks all right, mate. Nice place to hide out. We don't need much, though. Just a couch and a telly. Trigger don't throw up much anymore, but put some newspaper down in case. Oh, gosh.

So she's getting emails, calls, texts from this guy. Then she gets an invoice from a hotel manager somewhere, supposedly from where Sebastian had stayed, because, again, he's traveling to L.A. to stay with her. And they're like, he damaged the hotel room, and we need you to pay. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Then she gets another message from Sebastian.

It says, Amber, mate, had a brush with the law last night. Anyway, hopefully I will have lost them by the time I get to your place. Can't wait to see you. Oh my gosh. This is crazy. It gets weirder. Oh my gosh. So is crazy. It gets weirder. Oh, my gosh. So Amber lost it.

Yeah. She told her boyfriend, look, you need to sleep with Mace next to the bed. Also, can you have a club next to the bed? Like, let's Fred Flintstone this out. She told her friends. She told her neighbors. She told her friends, she told her neighbors, she told her family. And it's unclear to me if maybe the guy had her former address.

But at one point she reached out to the person who was living in her former home and said, hey, there's this guy, you know, just be on the lookout. I'm really concerned. So this lasted for five days. Again, emails, texts, phone calls. At that point, she got one final email. The prankster revealed themselves. Who do you think it was?

Her boyfriend? That is a totally reasonable guess. It was Toyota. What? So the link in the email was to a web page advertising the Toyota Matrix. Their tagline for that vehicle

at the time was Your Other You Experience experience what the fuck yeah how did that get out of the development meeting when they're like okay i've got this crazy marketing idea very good question how why what yes okay so she was obviously like what the hell yeah what is this about turns out this was all part of an ad campaign because toyota wanted 20 something males and. And around this time, this was 2009, remember? Punk'd had been on TV, and that was popular. So their ad company, I think it was Saatchi, said,

you know what 20-something males love? Pranks. Oh my gosh. So they set up this ad campaign where you could basically nominate your friend for a prank. You would give the ad company information about your friend. And then you would select from like one of I think five different personas. And that persona would then actively harass your friend via email, text, phone calls for five days, and at the end, it would all be part of the Toyota Matrix, your other you experience. My fucking jaw is on the floor right now.

Like, are you kidding me? It is completely unreal. That is unbelievable. Yes. That is unbelievable. Yes. So, worth noting, by the way, that the folks at Saatchi who created this campaign were real proud. I'm going to read a quote.

Even when you get several stages in, it's still looking pretty real, Saatchi creative director Alex Flint said. I think even the most cynical, anti-advertising guy will appreciate the depth and length to which we've gone. Um. Oh, right? That's nuts, right? That's nuts! Okay. But how did Amber get duped? Like, what exactly happened?

Somebody had to nominate her, right? Right. So here's what happened. Her friend sent her a personality test. So she took it. Uh-huh. The catch is that as part of the test, I assume maybe to get your results, you had to sign a consent agreement. Yeah.

It was one of those long terms and conditions things which for the record i've never read in my life never in my life i've signed yes i agree to these always you always check the box yes never do you read it no um for the record she says that she even couldn't read it because it was unintelligible, but whatever. So you might be thinking, okay, well, they probably spelled out the prank in the terms and conditions. No one reads the pranks or no one reads those things. So it didn't matter. No, they didn't. Even if she had read the terms and conditions, here's what she would have discovered. All it said was that you're agreeing to a five-day experience.

Okay, so... Okay. Okay. Yes, Brandy. I can't even get the words together to express this. If you are going to do something like that, you clearly know that you need to be protected. So you've put, you've hidden this in a terms and conditions.

You need to fucking spell it out. God damn it. I just knocked the mic. As soon as you got your words together i was like bang sorry um fuck where was i so they clearly knew they needed to be protected because they hid this information in a terms and conditions agreement but then they didn't even do probably what is legally required to protect themselves let's find out shall we so yeah these terms and conditions they talk about a five-day experience like oh it'll be

interactive you'll receive text calls emails as part of this five-day experience which again uh no uh five-day experience is way too vague for what this was. At no point did they say, oh, we're going to play a prank on you. You're going to think you're being stalked by a criminal. Yeah, obviously not. Okay. Amber was very mad. Yeah.

So she sued. She sued Toyota and Saatchi, the ad company, for intentional infliction. Wait, is Sa sachi the ad company for intentional infliction wait is sachi the ad company and again this is a prank so they thought it was and a prank is like a joke and it turned into a lawsuit oh okay which is where someone sues another party, or in this case two parties. I was so confused. I thought we had turned this into a prank podcast and I was like... I totally understand why you would be confused.

I also am a human and you are too. So she sues them for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, false advertising, etc. How much do you think she wanted? Oh, gosh.

A million dollars. Ten million. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. I feel really bad for her. This sounds rough. This doesn't sound ten million dollars rough.

It sounds ten million dollars rough, but yeah. I mean, I would gladly take this for 10 million dollars uh so toyota and sachi were like you can't sue us because you signed the terms and conditions you have no right to sue us you can't even you can't even sue us because you signed the terms and conditions. I bet that's not true. So here's the funny thing. Before she could officially sue them, she had to have a court determine whether she could sue them. Yes. So the district court found in favor of Amber.

And Toyota and Saatchi immediately appealed that decision. And so the appellate court looked at the case and they were like, you guys are nuts. Even if she did read the terms and conditions, which, you know, she claimed she couldn't because the text was illegible. But even if she did, saying that someone is going to get a five-day experience is not a sufficient heads up for what you did.

I fucking knew it. Yes! Legal expert. Like, basically, she could have read this whole thing. She would have had no idea you were setting her up for something terrifying. Yeah. So the contract is void. You didn't have consent to do this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's the whole end of the court opinion. Just a series of no's opinion just a series of notes so the appellate court was like we affirm the decision of the district court p.s you need to pay her legal fees yeah which p.s you're mean p.s you're a bunch of jerks as a side note i read this opinion piece about this case, which I thought was really dumb. The guy who wrote it said, called it a humbug of a ruling. I don't think that's a humbug of a ruling at all. No, not at all. Not at all.

Clearly we know what side he's on. I wonder if he was a 20-something male who apparently loves price. Yes. But so in this article, and he did admit that this is an extreme example, which, duh. Yeah. He said, this could chill any type of ad campaign in which consumers are briefly duped before the advertiser reveals the truth. What's the harm in that like that sounds like a good thing well here's we want to end any kind of ad campaign that would dupe somebody well here's

the thing he compared it and i think this is a totally unfair comparison he compared it to you know those febreze commercials where people walk in blindfolded to like a disgusting room and they're like this smells great and then they take off the blindfold and they're like oh whoa this is disgusting so that's not the same thank you that's why I was reading this going nobody this is not the extreme version of that no this is not because no one's victimized in the extreme version of that would be like blindfolding them and telling them that they're going to eat something delicious

and then like shoving cat shit in their mouth. That's the extreme version of the Febreze commercial. Not five days of thinking some convict is coming for you. No! Here's... Okay, wait, I have one question. Yeah have one question yeah do you think that the person who came up with this scenario for the ad campaign just this specific one you said they got to choose

from like five different scenarios this one where the guy was coming and he was getting close do you think he liked that story the viper is coming do you remember that story like no the woman's home alone in her apartment she keeps getting a call the viper is coming i'm on the 14th floor and like he keeps getting close he keeps calling getting closer and then when he gets to the door she's terrified and he's like i'm the viper i'm here to vibe your window god he that was his first short story.

As a middle schooler. So he brought up another example of this type of ad. And I'm just going to bring it up just because I think it's kind of funny. So he's saying this is in the same vein as kind of the Febreze commercial, you know, blah, blah, blah. I'd never heard of this one. Apparently. This is kind of funny. So this company invited a bunch of food bloggers to this intimate Italian restaurant in New York.

And they said celebrity chef George Duran is going to prepare them a special meal. I don't know who that is, but he's a big deal if you're a food blogger, I guess. What's the deal with that? Is this a Domino's commercial? No. Oh, okay. But you're on the right track. Okay.

At the end of the meal, they were told that they'd eaten a Marie Callender's frozen lasagna. So the bloggers were super pissed they did not handle it again yeah he's trying to draw this comparison like oh it could have a chilling effect on this type of advertising i don't think so i don't either i think it's just like if you're gonna get someone's consent you need to be reasonably upfront about what it is you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. And a little thing like Febreze, where you're duped for, what, a minute? Yeah.

No, not the same. It's not the same. So what happened? Sorry for the pause. I'm on the edge of my seat. I know you are. I know. It's always intentional when I have a the pause. I'm on the edge of my seat. I know you are. It's always intentional when I have a long pause. It's not at all that you lost your place.

Not at all. So the two courts obviously were like, yeah, guys, sorry. Amber can definitely sue you. And if I were them, I would have settled immediately because this is so crazy embarrassing. I mean, when I read through the story and I'm thinking, okay, one of her friends, her boyfriend, someone she knows played this prank on her with the help of Toyota. That is so crazy. It blew my mind. And I'm thinking if I'm Toyota, if I'm this ad agency, I don't want anyone else to know. No, you settle.

You give her a free Toyota. Yeah. And you move on with life. One of the articles I saw about this, the headline started, From the Bad Idea File. Like, what? Yes. Yes.

So since this didn't go to a jury trial, although it could have, I assume she settled. I couldn't find what the amount was. I assume not $10 million. Yeah. But I hope she got a lot of money. Me too. Wow.

Isn't that crazy? I just cannot see how that got out of the development meeting. No, because you know a lot of people had to sign off on this. Tons of people had to be involved. Oh my gosh. Am I being nuts or am I thinking surely there were no women in that meeting? Got that tinfoil hat on again?

I've got my tinfoil. You know what I realized last night? I was like, I need to space out my feminist stuff. And I don't know why I had that thought, but I've had that thought this whole podcast. Like, I need to space out my feminist stuff so people don't, like, and what am I, like, people aren't going to know. I don't know.

I just like, but I've noticed that every, at the end of every episode, I always have this thing, but were men involved? And I shared my theory about it. Well, this is the Heat Man Woman Haters Club. I need to know the location. But I... I have... I get what you're saying.

I feel like a woman might have tried to pump the brakes on this idea. I'm just thinking, like, you know... Pump the brakes on this idea. I'm just thinking like, you know, to me, stalking and some criminal knows where you live and is coming to you. Like, that's terrifying. I can really imagine that. I wonder if these advertising dudes were just like. At the same time. Okay.

advertising dudes were just like the same time okay putting myself in that conference room where the pitch is being given by sachi they've got fucking storyboards and a projector and a laser pointer bright colors pie charts bar graphs i might get on board with it just like you're right this does look amazing look at this this. Yes, people love Punk. I love Dax Shepard. Ashton Kutcher's amazing. Yes, let's do it. Without realizing on the receiving end, you're going to feel like somebody is stalking you. Okay.

Does this go back to your theory about how you could have easily been sucked into a cult? Yes, it does. about how you could have easily been sucked into a cult. Yes, it does. So what we're hearing is, as long as you've got a flash enough PowerPoint presentation, Brandy will be like, hmm, Helter Skelter is coming. I will get on the back of your dune buggy. Take me up to your garbage dump.

I am special. What about the Beatles? I hear it too now that you mention it. Yes. I didn't hear it before. If any of this sounds unfamiliar to you, check out episode one. Yes, check out episode one. We'll wait.

Not that you can hear us anyway. Not that you can hear us anyway. So those are my two, again, pranks that turned into lawsuits. I loved this episode. I thought this was so fun. I love pranks. Do you like pranks or are you? I know I do like pranks.

Some people are very sensitive about them and not fans. Yeah, no, I like pranks. I think we should close out this episode by talking about pranks we have pulled pranks that have been pulled on us gosh think it over i don't know if a prank has been pulled on me why would you say that that is like tempting fate oh god when i was a kid okay april on april fool's day my sister and i would tell my dad the exact same thing every april fool's day from like i don't know it was early as i can remember till i was old enough to realize it was fucking stupid on april fool's day we would tell my dad he had milk on his head and he'd be like, what? And then we'd be, April Fool's.

Milk on his head. I love that your dad played along. I bet you guys were so excited. Yes. Yes. So until late night school. Until I was like 14 and he was like, Brandy Brandy Brandy I'm worried about you was that the first day someone tried to explain to you what a prank was I love it I think that's so sweet

you know I started thinking about about this when this when I was looking at the Glenn Howlett thing. Yeah. Because for a long time, I loved pranks. My friends and I would play them on each other. I would play them all the time. Yeah. The last prank I pulled was like 10 years ago. And it was at work.

Oh, gosh. And the guy reacted so badly that I haven't played one since. But I hadn't even thought about it. Okay, so here's – What did you do? Okay, yeah, this will be good to get a second opinion on this. So I had these two other friends at work. We were all really close, and we all loved The Office.

And this was back when The Office was still on. And you know that prank where Jim would, like, put one of dwight's things in in jello yeah so my friend jenny and i thought oh my gosh it'd be so fun to play this prank on our friend where we put his stapler in jello yeah so one night took his stapler put it in jello which is so hard to do yeah jim makes it look easy my jello mold looked like shit so it was just like a stapler um surrounded by jello it looked really bad but that was our april fool's prank we put it in his desk drawer and then you know asked him for a stapler he opens it up

and you know we're standing there like mouths, so excited for him to do this. He got pissed. He was really mad. Wow. Yeah, he was really mad. And he said something about, like, it being the property of the company or something. Oh, God. I felt terrible.

I immediately took it back and, know washed it and everything and uh i haven't pulled a prank on anybody since oh my gosh yeah i mean i always enjoyed like watching punked i always thought it was yeah yeah i've never been someone who like plays pranks on people and i don't i can't think of any off the top of my head. Yeah. People have played on me. Um, so I basically brought up a discussion point that only I have. This is only slightly self-indulgent, right? No, I love it. Okay. I've got to tell you one.

Okay. This, this, I think this might be the best one that's ever been pulled on me. Okay. This was when I was in college. My friends and I had this apartment, and we had a mouse problem. Disgusting. Yeah. We had this guy come out to alleviate the problem, and he warned us.

He was like, look, be really careful about putting on your shoes in the morning, because sometimes they'll give birth in the bottom of your shoe and you'll put yeah and you'll put your foot in it and it'll feel like you're stepping on gummy bears oh my god it's just baby mice in there yes we all freaked out okay april fools i was looking all over for my boots couldn't find find my boots. I was running late, ran upstairs. There they are in the living room. Thank God. Okay. I put them on and immediately I feel the mouse babies in there. And I lost my mind., freaked out. I jumped on the couch and my roommates were all

just cracking up. And I'm thinking they don't understand what's happening. Yeah. So I'm like, no! No! You don't understand! The mice! The mice are in my shoes! And of course, my roommate Christina dumps out my boot and out comes the gummy bears.

Gummy bears are so good! That's pretty horrible. It was so good, though. It was so good. Oh my gosh. My friend Christina, my other friend Christina, who actually listens to the podcast and yeah, all that. She's a master prank puller. Really?

One time. This was when I first moved back to Kansas from North Carolina. And there was this huge Powerball lottery going on. And the winner was from Kansas. Yeah. But Kansas is one of those states where if you win the lottery, you're not, like, legally obligated to come forward and say, hey, what's mean? Yeah.

Okay. So someone from Kansas won the lottery. Christina went on our college Facebook page and wrote, congratulations, lottery winner and Simmons alumna, Kristen Pitts. Oh, my God. And I can't remember where I was, but I obviously didn't see that right away. Instead,

I got some like really random texts from people I had not heard from in years congratulating me. Oh my gosh. That's amazing.

She's a good one. She also called me on April Fool's Day when I was a reporter and said her name was Deep Throat and she wanted to meet me out in the parking lot. Shout out to Christina Linus for being really good at pranks. Those are all excellent. I'm a big fan. I'm now saying that there's a hole in my life where I've had no pranks. Maybe I can like dip my toe in and prank you somehow. I don't want your toes anywhere near me, Kristen.

They're covered in gummy bears. They're delicious. Oh, God. Oh, yeah. Well, i thought this was really fun i thought that was a great idea kristin i loved the bubble boy um he's the balloon oh that's seinfeld that i just said bubble boy no i love that hoax yeah i thought that was a good one i love these ones where you think you kind of know the story but then it turns out oh there was a lot yeah there's tons yes the whole reality tv show yeah it's so gross and so telling of the time oh yeah that was a time when like everyone yes they deserved their own reality show Everybody thinks they're hilarious and amazing.

We don't know anything about that. Yeah, that's such a good point. We're sitting here with these mics like they think they're so special. People should listen. Everybody wants to hear everything they have to say. They're nothing like us, Brandi. We've got something serious here. Highly talented.

Oh, gosh. That's right. Expert podcasters. Now, if we can just get the audio right. Right. Yes. So, if you enjoyed listening to this episode, or any of these episodes, the ones that you can hear, any of these episodes, the ones that you can hear.

We would love if you would go like us on Facebook, subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a review, follow us on Instagram at LGTPodcast, follow us on Twitter at Let's Go, the number two, court.

And you can be our second follower on there. That's right. We still only have one. It's me. Kristen, you haven't even followed us. I'm too cool. No, I do need to do that.

And if you have some tips on how to fix their auto, send us over an email at lgtcpodcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much. If it's just telling me to shut the fuck up, noted. I don't need to hear it. If you have no actual audio experience and your advice is, hey, Kristen, have you thought about talking louder? And Brandy, have you thought about talking softer? No, we don't need that kind of advice.

Thank you very much. Professionals only, please. Also, keep in mind, you know, this is the first time we've dealt with two hot mics in this house. I just love that story. Like you were all ready that Norm was giving you this great compliment. Both of us. I thought for sure it was like, well, you know, it's amazing. You learn where your ego's at when something like that happens.

Because like immediately my mind was like, we are good looking. I can see how it could create some problems which problems I don't know why my husband would be upset about this I'm not sure but I bought it and when he said Mike's balloon boys flying saucers I bought it. And when he said Mike's. You were just immediately deflated. Yeah. Oh. Like balloon boys.

Flying saucer. He said too hot. And I flew up in an aluminum foil raft into the air. Didn't fall out anywhere. Nope. Okay. Join us next week. When we'll be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned.

And now for a note about our process. I read a bunch of stuff, then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary. And I copy and paste from the best sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts. For this episode, I got a lot of my info from CBS News, Wired.com, ABC News, and the London Free Press. And I got my info from articles on Slave.com, The New York Times, and USA Today. For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com. Any errors are of course ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff and watch that HeBoys Balloon Boy medal video. And remember guys, this was a podcast about pranks that turned into

lawsuits. Explain it to your friends before you recommend it. Maybe we should put this at the beginning. We should. So we'll know going in. That'll be all the show notes.