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British Man’s Horrifying Prank Put Woman In Hospital

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 19:31 PST, Mar 8, 2016

A British man’s horrifying prank put a female coworker of his in the hospital with a potentially life-threatening injury — and now he’s facing punishment for his actions. The Dreamin’ Demon reports that 19-year-old Brandon Walker has been sentenced to a little over a year in “youth custody” as a consequence of the incident, which took place approximately two years ago.

The Sun reports that one of Brandon Walker’s female coworkers was rushed to the hospital around August 28, 2014, after she sucked a sharp object down her throat by accident. A one-inch-long sewing needle had found its way into a straw that she was using to sip her drink. The incident sent the unnamed victim to the hospital, where she had to go through surgery to have the object removed.

CCTV footage of the 2014 incident showed Walker tampering with the woman’s straw, which was done as an apparent prank — a very dangerous and potentially fatal prank. Shortly after Walker was seen in the video messing with the drink, the coworker sipped from the straw. This immediately caused the inch-long sewing needle to shoot down her throat, where it lodged itself. The mean prank ended in the hospitalization and surgery required to remove the needle, but not before the woman could be seen panicking on the video. She was reportedly spitting up bloody bile and was unable to speak.

A prosecutor on the case described the woman’s ordeal in court before the 19-year-old British man was sentenced.

“She thought at the time she was going to die.”

The man was described by his defense as a frequent prankster who would often move items at the workplace in various places, or he would take photos of himself with the phones belonging to his coworkers. However, it seems that the sewing needle prank was the worst practical joke he had committed. His defense expressed apologies on his behalf, saying he was having a hard time “coming to terms with what he had done.”

On social media, people joke about pranks involving needles rather often. Unfortunately it seems that this particular prank went beyond a simple joke, and in reality severely injured a woman. She was in fear for her life, but is it possible to die from this particular type of incident? Similar incidents have happened with pets in the past, which can be fatal for them. There are also incidents of people dying after swallowing toothpicks, which are about the same size (a bit thicker) than sewing needles.


There are also reports of similar mean-spirited pranks taking place during the Halloween holiday. In 2015, numerous reports of tampered-with candy made headlines — with some candies containing sewing needles and other sharp objects. Of course, some of these dangerous incidents turned out to be hoaxes. However, in 2014, an Illinois man was arrested after he was reportedly caught inserting sewing needles into packaged meat at a grocery store. At least one victim later bit into meat containing sewing needles, but no severe injuries were reported from the bizarre incident. A 68-year-old man was ultimately accused of this horrible prank, and at the time he faced penalties of 10 years imprisonment with fines reaching as high as $250k.

Do you think the punishment given to the British man in this latest case fit the crime? Brandon Walker wasn’t even given real jail time for severely injuring a coworker in a terrible prank. So is it possible for him to learn from this mistake so as to never repeat it? Whatever comes of this case, it’s most fortunate that the victim of this prank is alive and didn’t suffer irreparable damage.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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