Prank mimics home invasion

3 teens dress in black, break into friend’s home

What seemed like a joke to three teens isn’t a laughing matter to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old entered the home of a friend in Bayou Gauche dressed in all black on Nov. 30 at 3 a.m. The three, each also wearing black gloves and a tan cloth mask with a facial drawing on the cloth, woke up two victims in the house in order to scare them.

Then they fled.

The two victims called the sheriff’s office thinking their home had just been invaded by strangers. In the end, it was determined that the three were friends of one of the victims and the whole thing was just a prank.

“The people in the house thought someone had invaded their home and they immediately called us,” St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes said. “Through our investigation we learned it may have been a prank, but it took us a while to make the arrests and make sure.”

The three men were arrested on Dec. 1. One was from Houma and two were from Luling. The sheriff’s office said the three all confessed to playing a prank on the victims and were arrested for unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.

“I don’t know if they thought it was funny, but it wasn’t funny at all and was taken very seriously,”  Yoes said. “Their actions placed the public at risk as officers responded to, and investigated, what was reported as a home invasion. The sheriff’s office had to use resources in this response and waste a lot of taxpayer money on this.

“It’s ridiculous.”

But that wasn’t the only recent prank to give the sheriff’s office problems. They also got a call from a 10-year-old in Killona that said an 8-year-old had shot himself in the arm. When deputies arrived, they realized that the call was a prank and the 10-year-old was arrested and booked before being released to the custody of his mother.

“We take these incidents very serious,” Yoes said. “Public safety is no joking matter and it is the sheriff’s office’s position that these pranks will not be tolerated.”