Youths ordered to apologize on YouTube

Two teenagers who posted a malicious "fire in the hole" prank on YouTube were slapped with a court order to post an apology on the same video-sharing site, according to a report in Florida Today.

The sentence, devised by the judge, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, was created to serve as a deterrent to what is viewed as a growing problem of youths filming malicious, or violent, acts and posting them online, in the hope of generating notoriety.

In this particular case, a 23-year-old Taco Bell employee was stationed at the drive-up window, when a car loaded with teenagers drove up. After taking their order and handing the group their drinks, the teens yelled "fire in the hole" and threw a 32-ounce soda at the employee as she handed them their change.

The employee initially thought it was a personal attack, until learning from customers that a video of the prank had been posted on YouTube. The employee then engaged in a little sleuthing and tracked down the teens.

From the YouTube video, she found the boys' MySpace pages, where they had bragged about the incident. While keeping her identity secret, she befriended the boys and confirmed that they were involved in the attack, according to the Florida Today report.

Using a phone book, she located the mother of one of the teens, who identified the others involved in the prank.

The driver, who threw the drink, and the teenager who filmed the attack were charged with two counts of battery and one count of criminal mischief, according to the report.

As part of their sentence, the teens had to write, film, and post their video apology on YouTube, as well as pay $30 to clean the restaurant and serve 100 hours of community service.

[kwilsonjr]

Good 'common sense' judge. Let the punishment fit the crime. Props to the TB employee for her internet prowess and sleuthing skills. Now if we can just catch those SOB's throwing eggs from their SUV at passersby every Saturday night...

[rdupuy11]

$30, 100 hours of community service, and an apology?

WOW, that judge is one throwback to some bygone era.

What we do in modern times, is charge them all with felonies, and give them 20 years (of which they'll serve a couple)

Allthough, I have to admit, the old fashioned 'reasonable response' has a certain nostalgic appeal.

[danielszabo1981]

Might just be because I'm turning into an old man, but I think they got off kinda light. They willingly committed a crime knowing it was a dumb thing to do. Judge should've made them do some time in addtion to their comm service, just to show them what REALLY happens to criminals.

[theonlybuster]

Wow... I can relate to this. I used to get prank calls from some kids in Illinois and I googled the phone number, tracked the phone number to an address, used Google Maps to get a visual of the house, and a couple other tricks to find their myspace page. I later called the kids back from a pay phone saying that I would steal their bikes and kill their dog named Nicky. It was hilarious and since then I have yet to get another prank call from them.

[Stephen Russell]

Should have been 250 hrs of community service. Make them pay with time that they plenty of to kill.

[Far Star]

BRILLIANT!/n
The best thing is that the employee was smarter than the teens thought and hoisted them by their own petard.

[Far Star]

Actually 100hrs of community service equals about 4 weeks. Unless they can find a place that can use them for 8hrs a day the normal is more like 5hrs a day. Most places only do community service during the week so 100/5=20days=4 weeks. So 1/3 of their summer is shot, which I think is more than fitting for a prank like that. That plus the compensation and YouTube vid (hopefully posted on a special account not under the control of the teens or anyone related to them) is poetic justice imho.

[nwjerseyliz]

That was one smart and persistent Taco Bell manager! She should get a promotion over this.

Speaking from teenage experience, customer service folks get so little respect. They should make these kids clean up their parking lot and empty their trash. $30 to clean up the mess? Ridiculous.

[qtip99--2008]

golly willikers! 100 hours of community service and 30 WHOLE DOLLARS?!?!

Lets go ahead and go extreme and give them a stiff talkin'-to as well

shoot, I would like to see each one of them lined up on YouTube, with Kurt Shilling throwing cheeseburgers at their faces at about 90 miles/hour. Humiliate them like they humiliated her.

Just ask yourself - does anyone think this kind of thing will stop because this judge handed down this sentence?

[jayhawk73]

I had a friend that worked at Burger King cleaning up at night. One night he let us in and we took 2 whopper patties (uncooked and frozen) and left. The store owner heard from someone that lives close to the restaurant that someone was allowed in there that shouldn't have been. No cops were called but the guy working there was fired and the two of us that took the patties worked our ***** off cleaning the outside of the restaurant for 2 days to make amends. Once we were finished the owner said he had no hard feelings and we were welcome to come back anytime (during business hours).

I think the punishment these guys got more than fits the crime. They probably scared and embarrassed the worker so now they get a little lesson in humility.

[punterjoe]

This seems like a textbook case of punishment fitting the crime. Kids do stupid things. This is a golden learning opportunity for them. I hope they realize how lucky they are to get a judge this wise. The only way the sentence could be better would be if they had to work the drive through themselves & be on the receiving end of this kind of treatment from other clueless knuckleheads. A little empathy could go a long way.

[The_Decider]

This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer got a hold of a autodialer and used it to try and make money. When he got caught, the judge ordered him to apologize to all the people he annoyed, so he used the autodialer to do it and then asked for more money if they accepted his apology! I think this is not only a fitting sentence, but might actually teach them something, which is far better than making them sit in jail for a few weeks.

[panton41]

As a former fast food worker I agree with the poster who suggested this kids get felony charges. I worked in fast food to pay my way through college and people acted like working there made me a moron. I could code in BASIC at 5 years old (it was all I had on my old Atari 8-bit), during my schooling I consistently tested in the top 5 percent of my entire state, I took calculus in high school, but somehow wearing a Burger King uniform makes me uneducated. The joke was on them, me and co-workers often discussed high-level physics and philosophy while making their order.

[jamalystic]

They should have authorize the kids to make the apology in the presence of the injured party and/or judge. I think making the video and editing it all on their own does give them too leeway thus rendering the apology insincere. But this is all reminiscient of the growing problem we are facing with YouTube. It's high time the folks at YouTube find a better of of discarding most of these crappy stuff . I beleive in freedom of expression but we should not shy away from the fact that sites like YouTube should not become platform for the demise of society as has been aptly written on this report: TOP TEN WAYS YouTube HAS RUIN LIFE FOR GOOD( http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=155235&F_src=flftwo)

[shoffmueller]

Call me old fashioned, but how 'bout those brats showing up at taco bell at lunch rush, and appologize in person to the gal whose face they threw their drink at.

[Lobo1186]

is that a joke? they threw a drink threw a window. that worker is a freak they need to just let go.

[DADSGETNDOWN]

( the teens had to write, film, and post their video apology on YouTube)

But did they have to "be shown in" the video ?
Actually apologizing or anything ?

(as well as pay $30 to clean the restaurant and serve 100 hours of community service)

that $30 dollars does not cover the clean up OR the money lost due to the incident,
the 100 hours is punishment.
So what about what the employee or employees had to go through ?
do they get compensated ?. nope!

[brizzam]

She did all of that to catch these guys? Wow, and she still can't get an order correct? WGAS? That prank was funnier than hell. . .

[johnsaar2005]

come on people jail time or i saw some saying prison time for throwing a soda at someone the employee was not hurt and she was intelligent enough to seek out her own justice i think a worldwide apology and community service and a fine are good enough for some kids trying to be cool and making a bad mistake. thats what people need to remember they are kids they dont think about anything and niether did most of you at that age you would have done anything to be accepted and viewed as cool. the eye for an eye punishment is very fitting

[sonymaster101]

as to what brizzam said, you arent a stalker. anything on the internet is public, wether anyone likes it or not. and u pulled all of this from the internet.