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July 9, 2009

Prank leads Fla. couple to trash hotel room

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a prankster persuaded a married couple to smash their Florida hotel window after falsely telling them the room had a gas leak.

Police say a person claiming to be a front-desk clerk at an Orlando hotel convinced the couple to break a wall mirror and use a lamp to punch a hole through the wall. The couple also threw a mattress out the window, but a hotel manager came to the room before they could jump.

The manager told the couple there was no gas leak. The manager also said employees had received a memo from the hotel's corporate office warning that dangerous pranks were being pulled at hotels in other states.

The prank cost about $5,000 in damages. Police say the couple were not arrested Monday because they thought it was an emergency. The hotel has not asked them to pay.

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Local News

Local News
  • Health care law debated About 100 city union members packed the Wiggin Auditorium in City Hall last night, as the Peabody City Council debated the merits of a new law that would curb the unions' ability to negotiate their health benefits.

    February 10, 2012

  • Borders site is next chapter for auto dealer DANVERS — Danvers-based Kelly Automotive Group is ramping up expansion plans along Route 114 in both Danvers and Peabody.
    Kelly is mulling the creation of a two-story dealership out of the vacant former Borders Books and Music store on Andover Street in Peabody. The Danvers native and the company's president, Brian Kelly, acquired the property in December.

    February 10, 2012

  • Road race issue crosses finish line SALEM — The City Council agreed last night to track and monitor Salem's many road races through creation of a master calendar.
    Salem's volume of road races, and the fact that many of them run through the same sections of the city, had come under scrutiny by the council this winter.

    February 10, 2012

  • Salem businessman offers firsthand insight on Egypt SALEM — David Williams, 55, had a good feeling when he was asked to go to Egypt as part of a team of Americans dedicated to teaching that country's new democrats just how politics works.
    Today, he's less positive about a process that has seen revolution followed by elections and then, to his shock, the prosecution of Americans and others working to assist in the creation of a stable democracy.

    February 10, 2012

  • A Salem flag-raising in Afghanistan SALEM — For Veterans Day, third-graders from the Witchcraft Heights School wrote letters to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
    The school has done this in the past, but this time was different. This time they sent them to a soldier from Salem, U.S. Army Pfc. Michael Levesque.

    February 10, 2012