A 17-year-old in Provo, Utah has been charged by local police for allegedly taping fish to ATMs and other objects over a three-month period.
The unnamed teen had been creating mischief across Provo and had documented his antics on Instagram using the account fish_bandit84.
Thirteen incidences of fish-taping were reported to the Provo Police Department between August and September last year. Although if this was the complete extent of the spree is unknown. This included dead fish – of various breeds – being attached to ATMs and even a police car by insulating tape.
While authorities suspect that there was no malicious intent from the teen in taping fish to things, he was charged with two misdemeanours in December as there were costs incurred in having to clean up the residue from the dead fish and tape.
Where the teen sourced the fish from, and the motive behind the incidents are still as yet unknown. The fish_bandit84 account is still live and currently has 69.8k followers – no doubt boosted by media coverage of the incident – with short videos of the fish in situ.
The teen’s Instagram account has a tagline of ‘live, laugh, tape fish on ATMs’ but also added that ‘no fish were harmed in the process.’
This story unleashed a slew of fish-based puns when it was posted on Pubity’s Instagram account. Many people thought there was something fishy about the whole story. One user posted: ‘these fishing scams are getting out of hand’ while another speculated that ‘I bet he pleads not gill-ty’ or that ‘the cops let him off the hook’.
Remember kids, taping fish to objects is not recommended, and neither is documenting anything that could be deemed as illegal on your social media feeds where the whole world (and local police) can see it.
