A 17-year-old boy who prank-called 19 North Vancouver hotels and restaurants and tricked staff into setting off their sprinkler systems has been ordered to serve two years of house arrest.
The Surrey teen, who cannot be named because of his age, was arrested in March after a spree of phone calls to businesses resulted in about $100,000 in water damage.
He was found guilty of 12 counts of conveying false messages in North Vancouver provincial court on Monday. The judge handed down a two-year probation order, confining the boy to his home unless he receives written permission from his probation officer.
The prankster has also been ordered to have no contact with 12 North Vancouver businesses and is forbidden from possessing a cell phone.
"There is a strong message here to anyone who may think of using prank calls as a means of irresponsible entertainment" RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong said in a press release.
"What may appear to be fun and innocent can quickly turn into a criminal offence, where people's lives, community resources and personal property are at jeopardy."
The teenager wreaked havoc on the North Shore between Feb. 11 and 13 this year, posing as a fire marshal or sprinkler maintenance man in calls made through an internet phone service. In each case, he tried to convince a restaurant employee or hotel guest to take steps to set off the smoke alarm and sprinkler system.
At the North Vancouver Hotel, the trickster fooled guests into believing there was a gas leak and they needed to activate the sprinklers to prevent an explosion. The water caused damage to eight rooms.
The calls prompted Mounties to assemble a special investigative team, dedicated exclusively to tracing the prank calls.
The hoax also led firefighters to call 150 restaurants in the City of North Vancouver to warn managers and employees about the calls.
