Elaborate prank leads to police investigation in Barrington

Water Way resident grows concerned after receiving suspicious text

Posted 6/20/17

A well-researched prank led to a police investigation in Barrington last week.

A Water Way resident contacted police on Tuesday, June 13, after his adult son received a suspicious text message and …

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Elaborate prank leads to police investigation in Barrington

Water Way resident grows concerned after receiving suspicious text

Posted

A well-researched prank led to a police investigation in Barrington last week.

A Water Way resident contacted police on Tuesday, June 13, after his adult son received a suspicious text message and a strange package at his home. The resident's son lives in a converted barn on the Water Way property.

Police said the text message, which came from a Rhode Island phone number, mentioned the resident's son by name and asked if he had received a "surprise" at his home yet. 

The man later found an envelope taped to the door of his residence; inside the envelope were two old tickets to a museum, a bank receipt, and some outdated coupons to Target. The message in the envelope referred to a character from a story titled "Barn Burning."

The fact that the resident lived in a converted barn was apparently enough to warrant the call to police.

Officers responded to the Water Way address and spoke with the victim. Officers then called the number from the suspicious text — a man answered and said his friends had used his phone to send the text because they knew the Barrington resident would not recognize the number. The man said the text message and package had been part of a prank. 

Police spoke with victim's family, who recognized the names of the people who had been responsible for the alleged prank as longtime friends of their son. They appeared quite relieved the situation was just a prank.

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.