South Carolina woman makes up a school shooting for April Fools' Day, cops not amused
FOX Carolina
Proving that just because you work at a college, it doesn't make you smart, Angela Timmons of Spartanburg, S.C., thought it would be hilarious if she sent her daughter a prank text on April 1 claiming that there was a shooting at her workplace, Virginia College. Her daughter, either forgetting it was April Fools' Day or mistakenly believing her mother wouldn't joke about a school shooting, called 911.
Spartanburg County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the campus "thinking Columbine High School, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech," Sheriff Chuck Wright tells FOX Carolina 21. By that point, Timmons, 54, had admitted to her daughter that it was all an April Fools' Day prank, and her daughter told the 911 operator. Timmons was promptly detained by authorities, none of whom were laughing.
"Text someone and tell them their tire's flat, that's funny," Wright advises. "We're talking about death. It's real. The people of Sandy Hook, when they see this online they're not going to think it's very funny. I don't think it's very funny."
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Timmons was charged Tuesday night with two counts of unlawful use of a telephone, one count of disturbing schools, and one count of aggravated breach of peace. Listen to her daughter's 911 call in the video below. --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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