In 2012, I wrote about a movie called Compliance, a psychological thriller based on a true event in which a sociopath pretending to be a cop called a fast food joint and convinced the manager to do horrific things to a young employee.
A very similar incident happened this month in Devon, England. An unknown man called a store manager and, pretending to be from corporate headquarters, told the manager to close the shop for a special competition. The manager obeyed and asked the only two shoppers in the store at the time to come to the back room and speak to the caller. The shoppers -- a mother (Pamela, 55) and her daughter (Naomi, 24) -- were told they could win £3,000 at a store by performing a series of stunts. From Devon Live:
They were then taken by the manager into the store room at the back of the shop, where they spoke to the caller.
Naomi told DevonLive:
"He was asking us who were and where we worked and stuff like that, but I obviously didn't want to disclose where I worked so I just said I worked in a café."
The prank caller, who managed to dupe both the staff and Naomi and her mother, then made them carry out a serious of "humiliating and embarrassing" tasks around the store.
The manager and another member of staff were told to tie string around Naomi and Pamela's ears, throw water over them, draw on their faces with pens and make them crawl around the store on their hands and knees.
The mother and daughter were also ridden like horses around the store and told to lick the staff's feet.
Throughout the hoax Naomi and her mother were referred to by the two female members of staff as "ugly and "beast" and in return had to refer to the manager as "beautiful lady."
Eventually the shoppers realized that there was no competition and went to the police. The store, Poundworld, offered them a £200 gift card.
The caller struck again at another store in Bitterne, Southampton, with similar results.
Image: Mtaylor848/Wikipedia
