ESPN Reporter Falls For Hoax, Busts Up Hotel Room

Elizabeth Moreau was in a Gainesville hotel to cover a UF volleyball game for ESPNU, when she got a phone call. Hijinks definitely ensued.

Early this morning, Moreau was awakened at the Hilton Garden Inn by a phone call that said the hotel was on fire. She was told to put towels under her door to prevent smoke from entering, and to break the room's windows. After that, she removed the porcelain lid of the toilet tank and used it to smash out the window, all the while the voice on the phone calmly urged her on.

Then, the first sign that something might have been amiss. From the police report:

A clerk at the front desk later said she had received a call from a man asking to speak to his wife in room 208, and transferred him through without delay.

Moreau told police she had been stalked in the past, but it seems more likely that it's the work of an online group of pranksters who have pulled this bit in the past — usually at Hilton Garden Inns, because they don't require a name to put a caller through to a room phone.

Pranknet-Style Hoax Fools ESPN Reporter [The Smoking Gun]