College prank not so funny. Three arrested for faking a fire and tying dorm room doors at Central Connecticut State University.
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From the AP:
Officials at Central Connecticut State University don’t see the humor in this prank: burning bags of popcorn in a microwave in a crowded dorm in the middle of the night and tying some doors shut so residents think they’re trapped in a burning building.
Campus police say they arrested three teenagers who purposely burned the popcorn early Monday, setting off a fire alarm in the dorm shortly after 3 a.m.
No one was hurt in the incident in Vance Hall at the New Britain campus. University officials offered counseling to anyone who needed it.
University spokesman Mark McLaughlin said two bags of popcorn were in a microwave on the third floor, and about six room doors were tied shut with fishing line on the fourth and fifth floors. But students were able to squeeze out because the line wasn’t tight, and the smoke apparently wasn’t much of a problem, he said.
“We take this very seriously. It could easily have been something that went terribly wrong,” McLaughlin said.
Students in the dorm “were calm and handled the incident well — annoyed, as you can imagine, but calm,” McLaughlin said.
The six-floor dorm is the second-largest on campus, with room for 400 students.
Police arrested Matthew Dortch, 18, of Wayne, N.J.; Patrick Robinson, 18, of Goshen, N.Y.; and Christopher Scifo, 19, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Two of the three are athletes at the school, and the third is a former student-athlete.
