Sideswipe

Three April Fool's jokes that went terribly wrong:

1) Imagine reading that your husband or brother who has been held in a squalid Romanian prison for years is finally going to be released. You make the long journey to the prison and stand outside the gates, waiting desperately for the moment you'll be reunited, only to hear: "April Fools! No one's being released!" This experience happened to 60 people in April 2000 who read in the Opinia newspaper that their loved ones were going to be released from the Baia Mare prison. They made the long journey to the prison, only to learn that the paper had played an April Fool's joke on them. Opinia later published an apology.

2) Randy Wood's marriage was over, but apparently he was still a little bitter about the divorce. So he decided to play a prank on his ex-wife. He called her and asked her to come over, telling her he had something to show her. Obligingly, she drove over, only to find him hanging by a noose from a tree in his front yard. Terrified, she dialled 911. Emergency services, including firefighters, police and paramedics, soon showed up. But when they went to cut Wood down they discovered he wasn't dead. He wasn't even hurt. He had strung himself up as a prank to scare his ex-wife, using a lineman's harness. He faces a fine of up to US$1000 and a year in jail for his prank.

3) Glenn Howlett's colleagues at London Town Hall thought they had dreamed up a great gag. They sent him a memo informing him that the really big report he was working on was going to be due early, in just two weeks. The clue was that the memo was dated April 1. Ha! Ha! Except Howlett didn't realise it was a joke. He received the memo while on holiday and immediately cut his break short and phoned the office to tell everyone to start getting busy. But as he contemplated the new deadline, he worked himself up into an increasing panic, until soon he began to experience heart palpitations. Finally, he collapsed from the stress and had to take leave from work. As he was recovering he realised it just wasn't worth risking his health to finish the report, so he filed for early retirement. At which point someone told him the early deadline was just a joke. He responded by suing for damages. As a consequence of his lawsuit, staff have been banned from pulling any more pranks.

(Source: Alex Boese at www.museumofhoaxes.com)

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Schiavo Spam: The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorised a direct marketing firm to sell the database of those who've made a donation towards their legal bill, says the New York Times.