Peterborough Petes’ prank goes awry, with somewhat hilarious consequences

Cue the small jokes about how 'at least the Peterborough Petes finally scared someone.' Hockey players have been pranking each other forever, but sometimes that can backfire when their shenanigans, as cheeky and fun as they might have been intended to be, are taken seriously.

That's what happened to members of the Ontario Hockey League's Petes last week. They could have just settled for one of the old standards. There is always the shoe check, which former NHLer Brian Skrudland once pulled on the mayor of Peterborough when his team trained in the Ontario city. There's the timeless water bucket on top of the door trick. A couple players decided to put a scare into one of their teammates at his billet home. Unfortunately for them and the local constabulary, which is probably busy enough as it is, some neighbours were watching the action and thought it was for real.

From Sarah Deeth and Mike Davies:

Since no charges were laid and the Examiner reported that the players apologized to the neighbours who were affected, it's probably okay to play this for laughs. It's also good that nearby residents called the police instead of resorting to vigilantism, which could have had drastic consequences for all concerned. Not to do the Colbertian wag of the finger, but this probably shows why it's best to keep pranks in-house among team members.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.