A woman who located a number of identical keys across part of Merseyside discovered she had unknowingly partaken in a 'petty' prank.
Taking to Facebook yesterday, Emelye McArdle wrote about the recent discovery and informed others that if they found a key with an ID tag and phone number on it, then it is likely part of a prank initiated to cause inconvenience to the person whose number is attached.
It turns out the prank is part of a global TikTok trend which has seen people getting revenge on their 'enemies' in a uniquely creative way - or to simply annoy friends as a practical joke.
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TikTok user and New York model Marc Sebastian shared the 'brilliant' and 'petty' key prank last year and his video racked up well over a million views and hundreds of thousands of likes.
The prank involves purchasing a number of fake keys - or decorative ones in this case - and writing the number of a person you want revenge on onto an ID tag which is then attached to the key.
The pranker then scatters the keys around a town or area for strangers to find them, causing the hapless victim to receive countless calls from strangers who have found their 'lost' keys.
Marc’s 'prank' proved incredibly popular with TikTok users, with 13 Going on 30 star Christa Allen leading the praise, writing: "I am dying, this is hilarious."
Following yesterday's Facebook post, it would appear the trend has finally reached Merseyside.
Emelye posted pictures of the suspicious looking keys she had come across in Wallasey in recent weeks and went on to explain that after speaking with the person whose number was written on the ID tag, this was part of a prank intended to annoy him.
Each key appeared to have a different name, however the numbers on each both led to the same man.
She wrote: “Keep finding these keys round Vale Park area and I’ve called the number on the keyring and the man has explained to me that he has an ex colleague that he didn’t get along with.
“So for months he said he’s been getting pranked, whereby keys have been getting placed in different areas so people call him.
“Just thought I would share in case anyone finds more so that he doesn’t keep getting calls.”
The post received over 75 likes and many admitted to finding the prank 'brilliant'.
One person said: “This is some next level petty, I wonder what kind of drama inspired it”
Another said: “Bonkers on another level”
A third person commented: "This is next level... savage!"
Locals appeared impressed by the creativity of the prank and even took inspiration from the ‘petty’ idea.
One person replied: "This is literally the best thing I have seen all week. I needed this."
Another local commented: "That's a brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing."
And a third said: "This is right up my street this hahaha."
