Apparently, and I absolutely refuse to search for the videos to verify this, there is a popular series of prank videos floating around the web called “fire in the hole”. In short, people videotape themselves in the process of ordering a drink from a drive-thru, and then tossing it back in through the drive-thru window, yelling “fire in the hole” like it’s a grenade as it hits the worker. The most popular of such videos have apparently been viewed almost a million times. As reported on MSN Today (and a variety of other sources), this happened to Taco Bell worker Jessica Ceponis recently, and the video made the rounds on YouTube. While she was originally kind of scared (thinking it was a personal attack), when she found out it was a “prank”, she got angry – and decided that some punishment was in order.

It turns out that these prankster masterminds might not be particularly bright, and tracking them down proved fairly easy – Ceponis viewed the video, tracked down one of the boys on MySpace, befriended him, found out where he lived, and called his mother (that sound you hear is a few hundred personal detectives going out of business). With the case then turned over to the criminal justice system, Ceponis was hoping for a very traditional remedy – a face to face apology. Instead, she found out they got 100 hours of community service, and were ordered to post a video apology on YouTube – which, because of juvenile prosecution laws, could not show their faces.

Many of the articles cover what is becoming well-tread ground: the question of whether YouTube has a responsibility to filter out such content. However, I think the bigger point here is the case that Ceponis made – these kids hid in the confines of a car to pull off a mean (and temporarily scary) prank, and then hid themselves on the video while ensuring Ceponis’ face was there for all to see. While I understand why the law forbids their faces to be shared on the video, allowing them to hide within it yet again was a mistake – it was time to put the technology away and make one person apologize to another, face to face.

It might also be worth noting that, as this article nicely covered, the prank had apparently died out, but the new video includes a reenactment of most of the prank (though they stop before throwing said fire in the hole, and describe why it was wrong), it’s now all over the TV, with interviewers like Matt Lauer running dozens of such clips to demonstrate what the full prank actually looks like. The Judge thought the apology will be a deterrent, but I’m with the side that thinks it will be anything but (I wonder what percentage of people that view the apology go on to view videos of the prank?). In turn, if you so happen to work at a drive-thru counter, you might want to be ready to duck for the next few days…