Teen pranksters in hot water for turning Missouri city hall fountain into bubble bath
They’re in hot water for this stunt.
Police in a St. Louis suburb are on the hunt for two teenage girls who turned a City Hall fountain into a foamy, bubbly mess in a prank that reportedly cost the town hundreds of dollars to fix.
The teens were captured on surveillance footage pouring laundry detergent into the fountain in front of Webster Grove City Hall before a Fourth of July parade last week, local station Fox2 Now reported.
“There were lots of bubbles,” Webster Groves city manager Dr. Marie Peoples told the news station.
Approximately four inches of foam filled the fountain and suds shot out the top of the spouting water — seemingly to the enjoyment of paradegoers who scooped up the bubbles and took photos, according to the outlet.
City officials said the sudsy situation, however, is not a joking matter and costs taxpayers money to clean the fountain.
“It requires some special types of chemicals to do the cleaning, and they have to drain the fountain,” Peoples said. “So we have to shut it down, drain it, and when we’re trying to do more sustainable things in the city, it’s a waste of water.”
The prank — which has been repeated several times over the years — also costs city employees time.
“When they soak the fountain, it causes approximately four hours of our public works’ department to come out and go ahead and clean the fountain with another chemical to subside the suds,” Webster Groves Police Detective Paul Boudreau told Fox2.
Police said pranksters fill the fountain with detergent three to four times a year and decided to release surveillance video of the suspects this time to put an end to it.
