April Fools' Day Prank Goes Wrong When Mom Tells Daughter She Was Shot

A Wichita, Kansas, woman has found herself in legal trouble after telling her daughter that she had been shot and prompting a call to emergency services in an apparent April Fools’ Day prank.

Arnthia Willis’ daughter, concerned when her 58-year-old mother called her and said she’d been shot, immediately hung up the phone on Thursday and made a call to police that could now open the woman up to criminal charges, reports The Wichita Eagle.

The report of a possible shooting resulted in officers swarming the woman’s residence.

“Multiple police units, probably between 15-20 officers from the Wichita Police Department as well as fire department and EMS responded to the scene,” officer Ronald Hunt said at the scene.

Officers broke down the door with weapons drawn but found no one at the residence.

“Through further investigation, we learned that this was an April Fools’ joke played on the daughter by the mother,” Hunt said.

Willis was arrested Thursday on suspicion of an unlawful request for emergency service assistance.

“April Fools’ can be a good, funny little joke in some circumstances” but when police get involved “it’s not funny anymore,” Hunt said.

He added, “This is a situation that is very dangerous...yes it could be a situation where it could be a [swatting call] but that is going to be up to maybe the district attorney.”