That’s the lesson Australian YouTube pranksters “Reckless Youth” appeared to learn the hard way after their botched “ATM Robbery prank” ended in disaster and a broken nose.


A 2014 prank video gone wrong made the rounds on social media recently depicting a trio of Sydney-based teenagers Daniel Maran, Robert Milazzo, and George Proestos, pretending to rob an ATM in an apparent ploy to spark viral reactions from unwitting bystanders.



“Give me the money!” the prankster playing the robber yelled while jumping on the “victim,” portrayed by another member of the group, screaming “Get off me” after he was tackled to the ground.


Largely decried as “a dangerous prank staged by three stupid young men,” as one 9 News Australia anchor put it during the clip’s first viral foray, Maran, then 19, attempted to defend the clip as a “social experiment.”


“The reason we made the video was it was a social experiment and what we wanted to try to prove was that there are people out there that are going to help in a robbery,” he told PerthNow, back in 2014.


“Literally in every clip someone came and pulled George off me except in the last clip where it went a bit far,” he continued, explaining that the collective anticipated some physical responses. “We expected that.”


“If your ‘prank’ is indistinguishable from assault and attempted robbery, it's not a prank,” Twitter user @johnhawkinsrwn commented.


Take it from Reckless Youth – leave What Would You Do? to the professionals, lest you be called a dumbass on national television.