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After a 16-year-old tragically died last month trying to pull a Halloween prank and accidentally hanging himself, we looked at other instances when jokes have gone horrifically wrong:
The Tragic
Jordan Morlan, 16, center, was found hanging in his yard
- Jordan Morlan decided to scare his little sister by pretending to be hanging from a noose he’d put in a tree in the front yard. His stunt backfired horrifically.
- In 2001, Caleb Rebh did the same thing at a Michigan haunted hayride. Witnesses first thought he was joking as he frantically tried to remove the rope. By time they realized he wasn’t, he choked to death with his feet on the ground.
The Terribly Mis-Judged:
- An employee at a chicken restaurant in Kentucky walked in to discover her employer sprawled out on the floor in a pool of blood. Little did she know as she ran screaming out of the restaurant in fear for her life and with the mental scarring at its freshest that the whole thing was a Halloween gag – her boss had arranged the entire scene.
The Violent
- Five teens toilet-papering a house in Michigan were left rather shocked when the homeowner fired shots at them from a 12-gauge shotgun. A 14-year-old was struck with pellets, receiving injuries that were not life-threatening.
The Daft
The perfect Halloween costume
- A drunken man thought it was a good idea to don a diaper and go trick-or-treating. The man reportedly tried to get adults and children to hand him over sweeties whilst he was shouting profanities. No word on whether the diaper was part of his Halloween costume or if he Pampered himself out of laziness or for medical purposes, NBC astutely noted.
Not egg-sactly good marketing
- Asda came under fire in 2005 after it sold eggs described as "Halloween Fun" on the packaging. The supermarket said it was selling them as part of drive to promote eggs, but faced a barrage of complaints from shoppers who believed it would encourage egging. The company swiftly withdrew the packets.