Hotel Prankster Costs Owner Thousands

Alabama Daphne  Man calls hotel and tells guest he's with a fire alarm company...asks guest to set off sprinkler system
by Pat Peterson
Published: Mon, June 08, 2009 - 4:35 pm CST Last Updated: Mon, June 08, 2009 - 4:45 pm CST

The owner of the Comfort Suites in Daphne has a lot of cleaning up to do! Early Saturday morning, a hotel guest activated the building's sprinkler system when he got a call from a man who identified himself as an alarm company technician. The man on the phone told the guest there was a fire and that he needed to turn on the sprinkler in his room to stay safe.

As it turns out, there wasn't a fire. The call was a prank. Eight rooms were flooded causing more than ten thousand dollars in damages and lost revenue.

"This is a criminal act and if the person's caught, we will press charges," says Daphne Fire Marshal Chip Martin. "They're not going to call saying there's an emergency over the telephone, that you need to pull a pull station or break the sprinkler, they're going to send out a technician to do that."

The Daphne prank isn't the only incident reported. Fire investigators in Saraland, Gardendale Alabama near Birmingham and in Nebraska are all investigating similar costly and potentially dangerous pranks.

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