A group called Improve Everywhere, founded by Charlie Todd in 2001, was created to surprise people by these positive pranks. Over the years they have done over 150 pranks which they refer to as “mission.” All of their pranks are harmless and are meant to make people smile, yet in the end there have been certain pranks which got the attention of the police. In this particular prank, around 50 people had white body suits underneath gap clothing and entered a Gap store in Manhattan. Once inside, at the exact same time they zipped their body suit up to cover their face and posed as mannequins next to the store’s actual mannequins. Most people didn’t even notice if they didn’t actually look carefully, but the ones who did were caught on camera smiling and laughing at this prank. Even some of the workers in the store thought that it was funny and just continued doing their daily job. Yet one worker called the cops and all the “mannequins” were handcuffed on the floor. Although this occurred, the police, once they let the pranksters go, were caught smiling and laughing at the prank. It is understandable that it would be scary for people to put on masks inside of a store but once they are seen as harmless and just doing a flash mob which is making people smile and laugh I feel that the response of the police and even that one store employee was unwarranted. If I was a customer I would have felt more scared or even just angry at seeing all of the fake mannequins lying on the floor of the store, handcuffed than just leaving them alone.
