Subscribe
A group of pranksters managed to convince a family on vacation in Orlando that their hotel room had a gas leak, and instructed them in a series of bizarre commands, including breaking a window and bashing in a wall to help another man trapped on the other side, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The damages totaled more than $5,000.
Mark and Lisa Kantorskis say it started on Monday when they received a call from someone who claimed to be a front-desk clerk at their hotel, and told them there was a gas leak in their room. The person then instructed them to break the window of their room with the toilet tank. Mark told the Orlando Sentinel that he suspected something wasn’t quite right, but his panicked wife convinced him otherwise:
With Lisa clutching their three kids, Mark listened to the caller as he barked out more instructions:
Break the mirror on the wall. Check.
Use the lamp to bash in the wall to get to the trapped man on the other side. OK.
Throw the mattress out the window and jump for safety. Out the mattress went.
Room 204 of the Hilton Garden Inn on South Semoran Boulevard was a shambles.
“I’m not one to argue much with her,” Mark said. “When you slow down everything, the situation was kind of odd.”
The Kantorskis never got the chance to jump. Hilton Garden Inn manager Samir Patel appeared at the door to address a noise complaint, an Orlando police report states.
After the damage was done, the pranksters called back and were heard laughing. The hotel manager says he was aware that pranks similar to this one have been hitting hotels nationwide in recent months.
Prank group PrankNet boasted of successful pranks this past May on Twitter:
“I just pulled off the most epic prank. I had a hotel guest back his truck into the hotel front window, and break the window.”
Police say Mark Katorskis was not arrested “because he was responding to what he believed to be an emergency,” and the hotel has not asked to recoup damages.
