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April Fools is a time for fun and jokes, but it seems political correctness run amock may regulate this holiday as well. Five teenage girls in Ravenna, Ohio decided to decorate their town with cardboard Mario blocks as directed by a website for April Fools fun.
Unfortunately, the town didn’t see the humor in the prank. People began calling the Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit to have them investigate if the decorated boxes were bombs. After several reports were in, one of the girls and her parent came to take responsibility for the incident.
“The girls found an Internet site called Mario Question Blocks which told you step by step how the game is played, along with instructions on wrapping the packages, just to see what kind of response you get. This game is evidently being played all over the country,” stated Randall McCoy, Ravenna Police Chief. “The potential is always present when dealing with a suspicious package that it could be deadly. In today’s day and age, you just cannot do this kind of stuff.”
This response upset the webmaster of the site where the girls found the directions. “To clarify some of the points in the article: this is not a sinister ‘game,’ it is supposed to be a comment on public spaces being routinely used for advertising (billboards, etc) but not for art (these boxes). Also, despite what Ravenna Police Chief Randall McCoy says, the purpose of these boxes is not “just to see what kind of response you get.” It is to bring a smile to people’s faces, to get them to connect with their neighbors, to bring color into an otherwise gray urban landscape.”
The girls may be facing criminal charges after the incident. Point of the story? If you are going to play an April Fools joke on someone, make sure no one can interpret it as a terrorist attack.