TikTokers Prank Police With ‘Help’ Sign On Interstate, Get Charged

Two women from Ohio are facing charges after law enforcement in Pennsylvania responded to what they claimed was a prank they intended to post on TikTok, police said.

Chelsea Clay and Erin Steed, aged 25 and 28, respectively, were charged with disorderly conduct, WTAJ reported.

The two were driving eastbound along a central Pennsylvania interstate on June 29, with one of the women allegedly holding up a sign that said "help" on their window while appearing distraught, WJAC reported, citing Pennsylvania police.

After receiving calls about a woman holding a "help" sign, state police were able to catch up with the women in Marion Township. The women then told state troopers that they were filming a video as a joke for TikTok and no one was actually in danger.

No real emergency was found and no one had been hurt, police said.

No further details have been released by authorities.

A similar incident had occurred in 2019 when twin YouTube personalities pretended to be bank robbers in a prank video shot in California, resulting in them getting arrested and their unknowing Uber driver being held at gunpoint by police.

Alan and Alex Stokes, both 23, were each sentenced to 160 hours of community service and one year of formal probation after they pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors.

Additionally, they were ordered to pay restitution, to stay away from the University of California, Irvine — the location of one of their crimes — and to "stop making videos that mimic criminal behavior," according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The two were initially each charged with a felony count of false imprisonment affected by violence, menace, fraud or deceit and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an agency.

The twins dressed in all black and wore ski masks while carrying around duffel bags of cash in October 2019 as part of a prank video they had intended to upload to YouTube. During the prank, they had booked a ride from an Uber driver, who had believed that the two were attempting to carjack him.

Responding officers had ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint and released him when they realized he had not been involved in the prank.