April Fool's gone wrong: Joke wifebeating text reported to police

me and the sysop

Careful what you text

It all started when a 55-year-old Madison woman got a text message from her sister Friday morning. "Her sister was claiming in this text message that her husband had just hit her and she was going to hit him back," says Joel DeSpain, spokesman for the Madison police.

Only, the sister was pulling a fake-out.

But the woman who'd gotten the text (we'd use the names if we could--Madison police aren't giving then out) didn't know that, so she dialed 911. She told the cops to watch out, because her sister's husband had a gun.

With sirens blazing, the cops headed to the sister's house. But on the way there, they got more information. "We were now informed that the original sister who did the texting was now reporting that this was an April Fool's prank," says DeSpain.

When the reached the joking sister's house, she was waiting outside for them, hat in hand. She apologized that police had been involved at all.

And the victim of the prank wasn't happy either. She was mad at her sister and can't believe that she did this.

The prankster's husband, by the way, had previously had no history of domestic abuse, nor any contact with Madison police.