"prank" news and stories

Police in Murfreesboro, Tenn. are calling the recent explosion of a ketchup bottle at a local waffle joint the latest manifestation of a worrisome national trend.

Spokesman Kyle Evans says there's been a proliferation of "video Web sites describing the prank," which entails adding baking soda to a half-emptied bottle of ketchup.

"This could be a class C felony," Evans adds, citing a statute that forbids tampering with food.

According to the police report, the victim's wife called 911 after ketchup ended up "all in his face and hands, even his clothing."

"We were having breakfast, and my husband opened up a ketchup bottle and it exploded everywhere," Bonnie Brewer told the dispatcher. "(The staff) said, 'Don't tell me the ketchup bottle exploded.' It was almost like it had happened before."

Photo: miskan/flickr

A Domino's Pizza franchise in North Carolina was forced to close its doors forever last week, and its owner puts the blame on disgusting videos two former employees posted on YouTube.

"My business was off 58 percent because of YouTube," franchise owner Kevin Hendren told the Hickory Daily Record. The store closed on Sept. 22.

The franchise's troubles began when two employees of his Conover, N.C., Domino's Pizza allegedly created videos of themselves showing one putting cheese in his nose and then putting it on a sandwich, sneezing on cheese sticks and pulling down his pants, wiping himself with a sponge and then using that sponge to clean a pan. The videos were discovered in April and have been removed from YouTube.

Hendren told the newspaper he will not reopen the Domino's franchise. "I'm just living day to day right now," he told the Daily Record.