6 In February 2021, Timothy Wilks, a 20-year-old, was shot in the middle of his YouTube robbery prank. Wilks, with his friend, armed themselves with butcher knives in one of Nashville’s parking lots. When they approached a group of people, one of them shot Wilks dead as an act of self-defense.

Since prank videos are likely to go viral on social media, Wilks’s friend later admitted that they were actually creating this prank for YouTube.

Just when they approached a group, 23-year old David Starns, who was unaware that it was a prank, started shooting.

The shooter was terrified of the two guys armed with large knives, so the act was judged as self-defense and he was not arrested by the Nashville Police.

Wilks’ friend’s name, who admitted that it was all part of a YouTube video prank, was not publicly revealed. 

Such prank videos on YouTube go viral, sometimes reaching millions of views. Some of the leading YouTube video creators also have produced similar content.

Although YouTube has existing rules that mention banning dangerous and threatening pranks or the ones that create serious emotional distress in minors, these types of videos continue to be very popular. (1, 2)

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7 In December 2017, an innocent 28-year-old man, Andrew Finch, was killed by the police in Kansas because of a swatting prank. A 26-year-old video gamer from California, Tyler Barriss made a hoax 911 call and gave Finch’s address who had nothing to do with anything. Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

After having an argument with his gamer friend online, Barriss dared to make a hoax 911 call and warned of a fake hostage situation. Barriss thought that the address that he was giving to cops was of his Call of Duty mate who he just argued with.

However, it turned out that the police reached a random person’s home who had literally no connection with the situation.

When cops encountered the random man, Finch, they assumed him to be the criminal who just had murdered his father and held other family members inside. Finch just dropped his hands and was shot by one of the members of the SWAT team. Finch was taken to the hospital but he couldn’t survive.

Barriss pleaded guilty to multiple charges and was sentenced to prison right away. His gamer mates were prisoned a few months later. One of them was Casey Viner, a 19-year-old. He was sentenced to 15 months. (1, 2)

8 A toilet-papering prank went tragically wrong in January 2019 when a 34-year-old man in rural Escambia County was killed in a car crash. James McRae was pursuing the four prankster teens after the prank. McRae was desperate to catch them because he thought they were stealing something.

The incident happened on Robinsonville Road in the rural area of Escambia County. The four teens, one boy and three girls, had toilet-paper rolled two of their neighbors’ houses already before they teased McRae.

McRae thought they were trying to steal something and pursued them in a full-sized Chevrolet truck. He drove fast behind the pranksters’ car to get their tag number but lost his control after pursuing them for three miles.

He overcorrected, crashed into a fence, and overturned. He was not wearing a seat belt, so he was ejected during the crash.

The teens had no intention of harming anyone, and the girls gave a complete account of the incident. When McRae’s headlights weren’t visible, they assumed that he gave up and went back home.        

Nobody was charged with anything, but the incident was taken seriously in the county. The man was just trying to protect his family and faced the ultimate consequence. (Source)

9 Eric Morelli, an 18-year-old, thought that it was funny to throw a sparkler through the second-floor window of his friend’s home. The sparkler made it to the next room and started a fire where his friend’s sister Kristen Milano was. The 19-year-old from Connecticut died of extreme smoke inhalation on 22 June 2014. Morelli was sentenced to jail for a maximum of ten years.

Morelli and Kristen’s brother Jason were friends who smoked together and had plans later on the same day of the incident. Morelli thought it would be fun to wake up his friend by throwing some fireworks in his room.

Jason’s aunt thought Kristen was out with her friends and there was nobody in the house except her and Jason. They didn’t have a clue what had happened upstairs.

It was only later that they found Kristen’s body inside the charred room. She had died from smoke inhalation.

During the final court trial, Kristen’s mother accused Morelli of not even trying to stop the fire. She said he just ran away and didn’t even call 911.

Morelli was charged with first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to prison. However, the victim’s mother was not satisfied with the sentence. (Source)

10 Five high school students from St. Charles, Illinois broke into the school and stole a golf cart in April 2005. They intended to drive it into the campus pond just like others had done before but were caught in the act. A 53-year-old Sergeant Daniel Paul Figgins suffered from a fatal heart attack while he was foot-pursuing the suspects. He died in the local hospital.

The sergeant died chasing one of the five intruders in the school. These students were trying to pull a traditional senior prank. They were later charged with felonies, attempted burglary and possession of burglary tools.

When Figgins started his pursuit, he had already called for backup. However, when other officers arrived at the scene, they found Figgins on the ground, unresponsive, and he was transported to a local hospital immediately.

The officer’s death was quite shocking for everyone since he was physically active. His daughter mentioned that he had recently lost 30 pounds.

Neither the deceased’s family nor police accused the high school students of Figgins’ death. The consequences could have indeed been avoided only if the prank would have not been executed. And at the same time, it is to be realized that the children were not the direct cause of the death. (1, 2)