Teenager Added Sedatives To Stepfather's Drinks As A Prank

A teenager from Wisconsin admitted to adding cow tranquilizers in his stepfather’s energy drinks, thinking it would be a funny prank.

Court documents stated that the teen's stepfather was taken to a hospital in January 2018 after he had difficulty breathing, a droopy face, slurred speech and was stumbling. Doctors believed the symptoms were due to the energy drinks he consumed, stress and lack of sleep. However, after it happened one more time in April, 2018, the man, who is a dairy farmer, became cautious about his drinks and didn't leave them unattended. The symptoms stopped once he started doing this.

He began suspecting his stepson had something to do with it after he found some used syringes hidden in their barn. He believed these were the syringes his stepson was using to put sedatives in his drinks. Meanwhile, the boy's mother found that a box of oxytocin and rompun -- used by veterinarians used to sedate animals -- was missing from their barn.

The man told Rock County Police, "Cow sedatives had gone missing from the barn in January 2018 and I began experiencing odd symptoms,” which aroused his suspicions. The drinks and syringes were tested. They came back positive for drugs used to tranquilize large cattle.

Earlier in February, 2019, the teen admitted to his crime and the court records were made public recently. He is due in court on March 18. The teenager was expelled from high school in 2018 when he was caught hacking into the school emails. His age is unclear since there are conflicting reports of him being 16 or 17-years-old.

He faces two felony charges -- placing foreign objects in edibles and a second-degree charge for recklessly endangering safety. The boy admitted to the crime and said he thought it would be funny and that he meant no harm to his stepfather in any way.

In a similar case, two teens were arrested in August 2011 in Washington, after they covered a stop sign with plastic wrap so it was barely visible. This caused the death of two seniors who were out for a drive. Jeanne Shea and her sister Mary Sprangler were out for a drive when they missed the stop sign that was covered and were hit by an oncoming SUV that had the right of way. Sprangler died instantly while Shea was taken to a hospital where she died. The two teens were charged with tampering with a traffic control device and involuntary manslaughter.

Another pranking incident had a couple lose their children in 2017. Michael and Heather Martin, from Maryland, were known for their elaborate pranks that they played on their children and recorded them for millions of views on YouTube. The couple issued an apology for their pranks but also said that their children enjoyed them. In their videos, the couple was seen verbally berating their five children -- all of whom were school-aged -- to tears, pretending to break their X-Box gaming system and accusing the children of making messes that they hadn't made. The children were removed from their care and were placed in their biological mother's custody.