An ominous message on a Florida diner’s receipt and fast food box sparked panic on Reddit, with commenters imploring that they call the police immediately.
The message, simply reading ‘help’, was found on a burger box and receipt from Freddy’s in Lake Wales, Florida. The diner shared a photo of the receipt and message written on the box to the r/Weird subreddit, where commenters immediately suggested that the diner should report it to the cops, regardless of whether or not it was intended as a joke.
“If it’s a joke, the cops have a funny story. If it’s not, you can save someone in grave danger,” one commenter shared. Another commenter who claimed to work in emergency communications said, “Most 911 services can do welfare checks and other things if you have any questions about someone’s safety. Most will also let you stay anonymous if you tell them. If it’s no problem, then they will walk away with absolutely no backlash. Better to be safe than sorry.”
Desperate for an update and a resolution to the story, commenters did indeed find out that there had been a development to the story. A commenter reached out directly to the Lake Wales Police Department, who then informed the Redditor that officers had gone to investigate. It turns out that it was an employee playing a prank, and that nothing sinister was going on. Just an employee desperately trying to pass the time in work, in a rather irresponsible manner.
One commenter shared their frustration about the situation commenting, “What a dumbass prank. I really hate this, because now it’s going to be taken less seriously if there really is someone that needs help.” I mean, they’re not wrong. Did nobody ever tell this employee the story about the boy who cried wolf?
Others took a dim view of the prank as well, simply saying “Sorry, but I hope the employee gets fired,” while one replied to them saying “Not sorry, I genuinely hope that employee gets fired.”
Regardless of whether they got fired or not, I imagine the employee won’t be pulling a prank like this again after watching a couple of cops walking into their place of work and pointing out how serious something like that could be.
