Two New Jersey teens have stirred up quite a controversy lately in the town of Rahway, all because of a harmless prank. However, this prank was enough to leave the town divided between either team bushmen or team anti-bushmen—and the Facebook reactions will give you enough laughs to cover your next ab workout.
The prank, which involved two teens dressing up in ghillie suits to hide in the bushes, brought some joy and fright to those passing by in a Rahway public park, VICE reports. Apparently, the teens camouflaged themselves in the bushes and would move around and speak to each other, even going as far as standing up and saying hello to parkgoers. People quickly took to the community Facebook page, inquiring about the mysterious bushmen.
Rahway resident Rose Northcott began a thread for discussion on the page, writing, “Just wondering, has anyone else seen the random ‘bushmen’ at Rahway River Park?”
Residents were clearly divided, as some opposed to the prank responded with comments such as, “I don’t think I’d be laughing if I was walking alone and was startled by these people… I’d find it frightening,” or, “Hope they don’t jump out @ the wrong person.” One person went as far to even say that this harmless prank could cause a heart attack.
Others came to the defense of the bushmen, with one resident commenting, “They don’t JUMP out. They talk in funny bush voices… and you can’t see where they’re coming from… it’s funny not scary. I was there.” Two of their supporters even stopped to snap a quick pic with the two pranksters, who created their own Facebook page to respond to residents, commenting on the photo, “if you didnt [sic] see us its because we were lazy well [sic] do better next time.”
VICE was able to get in contact with Northcott, who explained that she believed the teens were totally harmless.
“All of a sudden I heard two bushes just randomly start talking to each other,” Northcott tells VICE. “At first I thought my mind was just playing games with me, and then all of a sudden one of them stood up. All he did was say ‘hi,”’ Northcott continued. “It was the funniest thing that ever happened to me.”
Unfortunately, not everyone found it as funny as Northcott did, as the number of patrolling units of the Union County Police Department were increased after the incident, Nj.com reports. The bushmen are to be arrested if they are caught keeping up their antics.
I don’t know who these teens are or what inspired this prank, but I’m proud of them.