John
07-13-2009, 08:43 AM
Pranksters made a family trash their Florida room by persuading them there was a gas leak.
Mark and Lisa Kantorski and their three children were staying at a hotel near Orlando Airport when they were called by someone claiming to be a hotel receptionist.
Lisa took the call and was alarmed to hear there was a major gas leak and they had to take urgent action, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
She frantically relayed the information to husband, Mark, an Indian River County deputy, who followed the caller's instructions to smash the window of his room with a toilet tank.
"When I broke the window, I got suspicious," he said. "It didn't seem right, but she was panicking, so I continued.
"I'm not one to argue much with her. When you slow down everything, the situation was kind of odd."
Mark followed more instructions. He broke a wall mirror, bashed in a wall with a lamp to get to a "trapped man on the other side" and then threw the mattress out the window so the family could jump for safety.
Before the family had chance to jump, Hilton Garden Inn manager Samir Patel appeared at the door to address a noise complaint.
He broke the news there was no gas leak - and the Kantorskis had become the latest victims of pranksters who have been duping hotel guests into outrageous actions across the US.
Mr Kantorski was not arrested "because he was responding to what he believed to be an emergency," said police spokeswoman Sgt Barbara Jones.
Mark and Lisa Kantorski and their three children were staying at a hotel near Orlando Airport when they were called by someone claiming to be a hotel receptionist.
Lisa took the call and was alarmed to hear there was a major gas leak and they had to take urgent action, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
She frantically relayed the information to husband, Mark, an Indian River County deputy, who followed the caller's instructions to smash the window of his room with a toilet tank.
"When I broke the window, I got suspicious," he said. "It didn't seem right, but she was panicking, so I continued.
"I'm not one to argue much with her. When you slow down everything, the situation was kind of odd."
Mark followed more instructions. He broke a wall mirror, bashed in a wall with a lamp to get to a "trapped man on the other side" and then threw the mattress out the window so the family could jump for safety.
Before the family had chance to jump, Hilton Garden Inn manager Samir Patel appeared at the door to address a noise complaint.
He broke the news there was no gas leak - and the Kantorskis had become the latest victims of pranksters who have been duping hotel guests into outrageous actions across the US.
Mr Kantorski was not arrested "because he was responding to what he believed to be an emergency," said police spokeswoman Sgt Barbara Jones.