CBC:
Mounties in eastern Manitoba have nabbed a strange, hairy monster that has been stalking campgrounds in and around the Whiteshell Provincial Park for the past two summers.
…
… the man was not intoxicated when nabbed by officers; he apparently had been camping in the area over the past two summers and simply enjoyed the prank.
His victims were less impressed. The woman who complained gave the man quite a tongue-lashing, Reitlo said.
“He was pretty meek and mild at the end of it … he definitely learned his lesson, that’s for sure.”
No charges have been laid.
OK, things are always scarier in the dark, but honestly — have these people no sense of humour? I’m sure I would’ve freaked out a bit if a gorilla-masked guy wandered through my campsite, but I like to think I’d laugh after the reveal. At least they didn’t lay charges.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I had some acquaintances who were very good at doing special-effects makeup. (If they read this and I get something very wrong, they should feel free to add corrections in the comments [or to fabricate stuff if it makes the story better.])
One afternoon they’d done a particularly impressive and dramatic chest wound thing on one of them — practice for a film shoot or for Halloween or something, or maybe just for fun, I don’t recall. When it was done, it seemed a shame to waste such a fine chest wound. I mean: what good is a fabulous chest wound unless people get to see it?
They piled into a car and drove around a bit. They passed a park, the sort which is more-or-less surrounded by streets and houses. Aha, opportunity! The car slowed and one of the guys pushed the chest-wound guy out of the car and onto the grass. After rolling (or bouncing, or whatever) to a stop, Chest-Wound Guy got up and staggered around the park clutching at his chest and showing off the chest wound to great effect. Apparently it was convincing — the police got six calls.
Sadly, the attending officer was humour-impaired, and mischief charges were laid.
IIRC it ended happily, in front of a judge who did have a sense of humour and threw out the charges.
I hope Sasquatch Boy decides he hasn’t “learned his lesson” after all. Or I hope the lesson he learned was “next time, toss the incriminating mask in the woods and don’t ‘fess up so quickly”. Society should have a high tolerance for good pranks, IMO.