Every tourist who visits Pisa, Italy, returns with a photo pretending to hold up the city’s famous bell tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Creating the photo illusion is so popular, that hoards of tourists flock to the town for the sole purpose of snapping the picture. One visitor, however, took it upon himself to walk around the square surrounding the tower and prank unsuspecting tourists. While they stood with arms outstretched, he snuck in, doling out one high-five after another. Watch above to see their surprised reactions.
Motel 6 guest trashes room “to free trapped midget”
A 73 year old guest spending the night at a Motel 6 in Spartanburg, South Carolina trashed his room when an incoming call told him to help “free a trapped midget” locked inside a neighboring room. The caller warned him that he was being watched by secret surveillance cameras.
The caller then instructed the hotel guest to throw the TV out the window, after smashing it with a toilet seat. They then asked him to break through the wall into the next room.
The man followed all the instructions, thinking he was helping release the midget, and assist the cops. When a manager went to check the room after noise complaints, they confronted the motel guest in his trashed room.
Amazingly, this is not the first time a prankster has pulled a trick like this, we wrote about similar pranks last year. Apparently, a group called pranknet is behind the calls.
When police arrived, other motel guests told them that they had received similar calls, but did not fall for the prank, so the jokers kept calling other rooms until they got a hold of someone who had some compassion for midgets.
Bottom line – if someone calls your hotel or motel room with a story that sounds too weird to believe, it is probably someone hoping you’ll trash your room “just for fun”.
The motel is not pressing charges, as it became obvious the man had been tricked. A video with the 911 distress calls from the front desk can be found here.
Ten best “Extreme Ironing” stunts from around the world
Sometimes questions are better left unanswered. Like how a sport called “extreme ironing” has circumnavigated the globe, fascinating folks from France to Fiji. Described on the official website as the “latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt,” it’s an activity that is as much a sport as it is a hilarious performance art. Here are the most unique incarnations of this increasingly popular international craze. Get ready to be amazed and amused as participants from around the world make a new name for this mundane household chore:
1. England: Multi-Disciplinary Extreme Ironing
Since the thrilling sport of extreme ironing was born in the United Kingdom, it makes sense that they’ve mastered the art. This guy has more than one trick up his sleeve when it comes to finding ridiculous places to get the wrinkles out of his duds. I’m just not sure they always score that high when it comes to productivity…
2. Japan: Speed Ironing on a Mountain Board
Short and sweet – this guy knows how to get the chores done. In speedy fashion he gains ground heading down a grassy hill, iron in hand, and takes a bold turn right in time to graze the shirt awaiting him on his ironing board. Who says you can’t extreme iron in a city park – at least that works when adventuring in Japan.
3. USA: Ironing in Transit, on Road and over Water
At first you think these crazy guys are just tied in to the side of a moving van attached to a soldered ironing board, but after they round a few curves the “van” takes to the water… Magically, this dual-purpose craft allows for two extreme forms of ironing, and to these Massachusetts pranksters that means double the pleasure. I know the state has much more to offer than this ironing activity.
4. Scotland: Street Level Emergency Ironing
Apparently in Edinburgh there are circumstances under which emergency ironing is necessary. But luckily this popular pastime has quite a following in these parts, including this fellow who’s one call in case you need him to run down the street after your dress clothes, iron in tow. Just try and block out the corny chase scene music track.
5. Austria: Rappel-Ironing
I made an exception for this Austrian guy who didn’t have a video camera – the video collage he got his friends to help him make shows just how much time they’ve got on their hands. Extra points for the matching spandex outfit and brightly-painted house off which he rappels. I’m assuming he likes to chat with neighbors passing by while he irons shirts, but I can’t imagine he wears suits much at all.
6. England: Sky Dive Ironing Championship Training
You can sky dive in England, and you can iron, but you can also to both at the same time. In fact, there are leagues dedicated entirely to the sport and regularly compete on points of style and creativity in extreme sky dive surf ironing, or whatever the league calls themselves. Watch as the teams prep for the big dives, there are a lot of clothes ready to hit the board. On your next trip to the UK look out for local Extreme Ironing competitions, they actually exist and can be attended!
7. Egypt: Ironing Underwater in the Famous Blue Hole
It isn’t at all the first thing I’d think of when talking up Egyptian travel, but the famous Blue Hole, an incredible geographic asset in the middle the desert, has more possibilities than meets the eye. To this gal it was extreme ironing, and she succeeding in reaching her goal of being the first and only diver to iron at the bottom of this aquamarine-blue body of water.
8. England: Extreme Ironing Skydive
You think these two are just jumping out of a plane with snowboards attached to their feet, but before too long you see they’ve got other plans, to use the bottom of the board at the ironing surface for their own form of extreme ironing. I’m sure if you get in a few jumps on your next extreme sports adventure to England, that the instructor might let you try out some of these moves if the spirit moves you.
9. New Zealand: Extreme Ironing on a Mountaintop
I can picture these Kiwi guys arguing all the way up the mountain about who would carry the ironing board, but however they managed to drag it up there, it is one incredible place to iron. The view of snowy crags and a sea of rocky peaks makes for a nice ambiance, I’m just not sure it would be my first choice of activity after mountaineering to the top of this exquisite New Zealand Peak, but hey, that’s just me.
10. USA: Extreme Ironing on a Bike
I’m not sure how this guy justified assembling this very complex rigging in order to conquer his ironing while rolling through New York’s Central Prospect Park. I can only assume from his hilarious video that his thought many others would be interested in his design in order to replicate his fanciful strapping of a gasoline generator to a mountain bike and an ironing board. At least one of these extreme ironers actually ended up with a wrinkle-free shirt!
Prank calls tell guests to trash their hotel rooms – guests comply!
There is a dangerous new prank sweeping the nation – one that can cause thousands of dollars in damage to hotel rooms.
Let me say right away that I love pranks, I’ve pulled quite a few of them myself, but what is happening in these hotels takes things way too far, and could seriously injure someone.
Imagine getting a phone call in your hotel room from someone claiming to be from the front desk.
The employee informs you that there is a major gas leak, and you are told to throw the toilet tank out the hotel room window You are then then told to break through a wall using a lamp.
Then the caller instructs you to throw the mattress out the window to catch your fall when you jump out of it.
It all happened in a matter of minutes, until the hotel manager knocked on the door to address a noise complaint. $5000 in damages later, it turns out it was all a joke, pulled off by people that could be anywhere in the country.
Hotel owners are being warned to be aware of this new phenomenon, but in many cases the damage has already been done – $50,000 in damages to an Arkansas hotel as part of a “fire alarm test”, $10,000 in Alabama after a guest was told to activate the sprinklers in order to put out a non existent fire. Or how about the Nebraska hotel where an employee asked a trucker to drive through the lobby as that was apparently the only way to silence the fire alarm he had just set off.
Let it be a warning to hotel staff and guests – be alert for anything suspicious as normally would, but don’t fall for phone calls demanding that you do things that don’t seem right. If there is a gas leak, it won’t help anyone if you trash the room. If someone calls your hotel room with weird demands, and claims to be from the front desk – hang up and call the front desk yourself.
Best prank ever: Stopping time at Grand Central Station
I wish I had been there. This is possibly one of the most astounding (visually at least) stunts ever pulled. No exaggeration–just watch the video.
Over 200 New Yorkers recently walked into one of the busiest train stations in the world, New York’s Grand Central Station, and at exactly 2:30 pm, all froze in place. There’s one guy in the video who froze just as he was stooping down to pick up some scattered papers. Talk about commitment.
Get the full briefing on the backstory here.
UPDATE: Part 2 of this prank, now in London and now even more impressive.
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Even more pranks:
- Classic prank: going through security with a vibrator in your pants
- Icelandic Teen pranks the White House
- Millions of colorful balls flood Rome, Italy
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