'Caution I have the coronavirus' prank in Illinois Walmart causes $10k in damage, police say
CHICAGO – Two teens have been charged after pulling a costly coronavirus prank at a Walmart in Joliet, Illinois, according to police.
Tyler D. Wallace, 19, walked into the Walmart Sunday afternoon wearing a handmade sign on his back that said "Caution I have the coronavirus." Wallace put on a yellow medical mask and began spraying Lysol on products and produce, police say.
Wallace turned himself into police Thursday and was charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct, retail theft and criminal trespass to property.
A 17-year-old boy who was in the store with Wallace was arrested on misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
"It appears to have been a prank that went too far," Joliet Police Sgt. Chris Botzum told the Associated Press.
Coronavirus hoaxes have been surfacing in other places as well. Earlier this week, a Canadian passenger on a WestJet flight from Toronto to Jamaica was charged with falsely claiming he had the virus.
Uncertainty, face masks and worry: 2 coronavirus patients treated in Illinois suburb
Walmart estimates the loss of produce to be over $7,300 and cleanup costing over $2,400, according to police.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University as of Friday, 31,523 people have been infected and 638 killed from the coronavirus outbreak that first appeared late last year.
Two coronavirus patients that were being treated in the northwest Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates – where protective face masks had been sold out for over a week – were released from AMITA Health St. Alexius on Friday and placed in home isolation, health officials said.
The first patient in Illinois, a woman in her 60s, was hospitalized after being diagnosed with the illness following her return from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, on Jan. 13. Her husband contracted the virus, making him the first U.S. case of person-to-person spread of coronavirus.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus prank in Illinois: Two charged in Joliet Walmart incident
