‘Russian Hitman Prank Gone Wrong!’: YouTube pranksters arrested for bomb hoax (VIDEO)
Vitaly Zdorovetskiy pranking Andre Brown, who doesn’t exactly take the bomb hoax well.
The Florida duo behind the popular "Miami Zombie Attack Prank!" YouTube video has been arrested and both men are facing charges following their latest prank.
Jonathan Vanegas, 20, and Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, 20, both of Delray Beach, had their first video — which went viral with over 13 million views on YouTube — featured on Comedy Central's Tosh.0, reported UPI. They said they were filming a new prank, "Russian Hitman Prank Gone Wrong!," outside a Publix market in Boca Raton Friday when things didn't exactly go according to plan.
According to the New York Daily News, the video, filmed by Vanegas, shows Zdorovetskiy dressed in a suit and holding a briefcase. He walks up to a stranger outside a supermarket and tells him he has 60 seconds to get away from the briefcase. Zdorovetskiy starts running, and so does the man. When Zdorovetskiy tells him the whole thing is a prank, the man doesn't take it very well.
"I was already having a bad day, and then you motherfuckers come over here and you done make it worse," the man, identified by police as 51-year-old Andre Brown, shouts.
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He continues shouting at Vanegas and Zdorovetskiy, asking them to turn off their camera. They say the camera is off, but it keeps rolling. Brown says he will call the police and the two pranksters beg him not to.
The rest of the incident was not caught on camera but, according to the Miami New Times, Vanegas was then arrested on felony bomb hoax charges. Zdorovetskiy was no immediately arrested, but has since been jailed on the same charges.
"The bomb squad came. Can you believe that?" Zdorovetskiy told the Times. "The bomb squad came for this prank. It's unbelievable how law is these days."
But Boca Raton Police spokesperson Sandra Boonenberg defended Brown's reaction, saying any reasonable person would have done the same in those circumstances, reported the Sun Sentinel.
"He wasn't aware that it was a joke and I think a normal person would probably not find it funny either," said Boonenberg.
According to the Sun Sentinel, Brown is a military veteran whose son lives close to where the alleged bomb threat took place.
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