South Carolina woman makes up a school shooting for April Fools' Day, cops not amused

FOX Carolina

South Carolina woman makes up a school shooting for April Fools' Day, cops not amused
(Image credit: 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.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.