Man Comes Up With Cunning Prank To Keep Thieves Away From House

A man in Huntington, West Virginia, has come up with a creative way of keeping would-be thieves off his property, having set up a pretty ingenious prank.

Joshua Garnes was fed up of having his things stolen, so came up with a 'fun' new idea to change things.

Having popped a box on the porch of one of the properties he's fixing up as bait, Garnes has managed to catch more than 20 people on camera.

They basically see the box and get lured in, only to find that when they go to grab it, a startling loud bang goes off.

That's because inside the box isn't anything of interest to your average thief. Instead, there's a trip wire that fires off a bang as soon as you pick it up, making a noise so loud it'll make their ears ring.

NBC

Garnes told News4SA: "There's only so much you can do so why not have a little bit of fun with it.

"It deters them from the property because that's the first thing that they see is a box so if they grab the box, hear the bang they'll hopefully leave quick."

Garnes continued: "They've even stolen my no trespassing signs, so I had to put metal ones up and screw them down because they would rip them off."

While it's amusing to see Garnes' prank being played out, it's also part of a much wider, more serious problem in Huntington.

He hopes his actions will send a reminder to people the next time they see something on someone's porch, urging them just to leave it alone.

Garnes added: "It's also a little bit of retribution."

NBC

Dennis McFeeley, who lives down the road from Garnes' property, said thefts are at an all-time high.

He said: "At this point you can't leave anything out or it comes up stolen real quick."

McFeeley added: "They'll go right on your porch and steal everything.

"I don't know if it's due to drug use or homelessness, but they are just stealing anything and everything they can get their hands on."

Local police have urged people to be vigilant.

Police Chief Hank Dial said the force is placing more of an emphasis on property crimes, having apparently seen a potential increase in such incidents.

He also encourages anyone to report anything suspicious immediately to police.

Topics: Prank, News, US News

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

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