Pranksters arrested for coughing and using Febreze to fake-spit at customers at Florida Walmart claim they were doing the stunt for their YouTube channel
- Amos Troublefield and Antonio Green, both 18, charged with disorderly conduct and shoplifting
- They were arrested on Saturday in Florida after being observed pretend-coughing on customers and staff inside the Vero Beach Walmart
- Cops say duo used a bottle of Febreze air freshener to spray passersby in order to simulate saliva while fake-coughing
- When a deputy pulled them over and detained them, teens said they ‘were just trying to be funny and make their videos for YouTube’
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Two Florida teenagers have been arrested after police say they were seen deliberately coughing and spraying people inside a Walmart with an air freshener as part of a coronavirus-themed prank.
Amos Troublefield and Antonio Green, both aged 18, were taken into custody in Vero Beach on Saturday and booked into the Indian River County jail on one count each of shoplifting and disorderly conduct.
According to an arrest affidavit first obtained by The Smoking Gun, on Saturday evening, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office got a 911 call about two black males ‘running around Walmart coughing, and spraying customers and Walmart employees with Fabreeze [sic].’
Amos Troublefield (left) and Antonio Green (right), both 18, were arrested last week in Florida for allegedly pretend-coughing on Walmart shoppers for a prank video
The pair were spotted running around this Vero Beach Walmart on Saturday night
The caller told an emergency dispatcher that the suspects have since left the store and drove away in a white pick-up truck.
A deputy responded to the scene, tracked down the vehicle and pulled it over for a traffic stop in the 4300 block of State Road 60 at around 6.40pm.
After having their Miranda rights read to them, Troublefield and Green reportedly told investigators that they were shooting a YouTube video, which was meant to show them pretending to cough on people, but actually spraying them with the Febreze air freshener to simulate droplets of spit.
According to the affidavit, the YouTube pranksters grabbed a $4.95 bottle of Febreze off a store shelf without paying for it, resulting the the shoplifting charges.
‘When asked why they would be coughing on people during a pandemic (COVID-19), they advised they were just trying to be funny and make their videos for YouTube,’ the document stated.
It is believed that Troublefield and Green operate a YouTube channel with a third friend, which has about 1,4700 subscribers and specializes in pranks, interviews with teens about sex and wing-eating challenges.
The duo were booked into the county jail shorty before 8.30pm and were released after posting $1,000 bond less than two hours later.
Troublefield and Green are due back in court for their arraignments on June 2.