A Morphsuits mannequin prank has gone viral after the latest stunt from New York-based collective Improv Everywhere resulted in more than 40 people being handcuffed by New York City Police Department.
Improv Everywhere aims to create ‘chaos and joy’ in public places and as part of this mission has organised over 100 public flash mob-style pranks, which are then liberally shared on social media.
The latest stunt – which has currently been viewed on YouTube almost 2.5million times – saw a group of adults in Morphsuits preteding to be mannequins before getting handcuffed by the NYC Police Department.
Charlie Todd, the group’s creator and founder, came up with the new prank after a ‘light bulb moment’, in which he noticed how much mannequins resembled humans wearing white Morphsuits.
Charlie then enlisted a group of willing participants, who turned up at the GAP store in 5th Avenue, NYC, wearing ‘Gap-style clothing’ and aware of nothing other than the fact that they would have to wear a Morphsuit in public.
Once in situ, the 40-strong group spread out across the store and then at the same time they all zipped up their Morphsuits and stood in place as if they were real mannequins. Amused members of the public started taking pictures and selfies with the ‘mannequins’, while many of who entered the store during the stunt were unaware of anything untoward.
However one employee did not find the prank amusing. He made a 911 phone call to report the incident, saying that he was concerned that the pranks were a cover up for a burglary.
NYPD officers quickly responded to the 911 call and upon arrival at the scene they handcuffed the ‘mannequins’ and rested them on the floor.
The excitement was all over fairly quickly and as soon as the authorities learned that it was an innocent prank, the ‘Morphsuit mannequins’ were released and charges were not filed.
Visit the Improv Everywhere website to see the full video and more images from the day.
