Minnesota – On the evening of Friday, police reported that Coon Rapid Burger King’s employees were tricked due a prank call and smashed the windows of the restaurant.
According to the reports, the employees got a call from man claiming to be with the fire department, and then he urged them to release pressure by smashing the windows or the restaurant could explode. By the time officer arrived, the manager and some other workers were smashing all the windows, said Sgt. Rick Boone to the Star Tribune.
“The manager explained they’d received a phone call from a male who identified himself as a fireman who said there were dangerous levels of gas in the building and they had to break out all the windows to keep the building from blowing up.” added Boone.
Police say employees broke destroyed many windows of the restaurant, and one employee had a little cut while breaking the windows, besides that no other injuries were reported.
The Coon Rapids Police and Fire Department alert the community by saying that they would never call a residence or business to ask them to take action of any kind. In case of receiving a similar call, they recommend people to call 911 immediately.
The cost of damage hasn’t been estimated yet, but on Saturday the restaurant was boarded up and an investigation is running to identify the caller.
Similar pranks all over the U.S
Similar pranks at Burger Kings and other fast-food restaurants in other states have occurred in the last few months.
Workers of a Burger King in Shawnee, Oklahoma, received a similar call on Thursday night. The caller said that there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the building. Reports said that the window damage there was estimated at $10,000.
“It is a little upsetting that they would try to give the fire department a black eye,” Thomas Larman, of the Shawnee Fire Department, told the station. “We would never do anything like that. We’re here to serve the public, protect the public.”
Something similar happened in a Burger King in Morro Bay, California, about a purported gas leak in February resulted in $35,000 in damage. The manager of the restaurant did even ram his car into building to smash the windows.
Police in Tucson, Arizona, say similar prank calls were placed to Jack in the Box restaurants and at a Wendy’s in Phoenix early this year.
Source: WRCVTV