Video: Influencers punished for playing prank with taxi driver

A video of arrested influencers stealing a taxi in Russia as part of their prank has gone viral on social media.

A foreign news agency reported that the prank was pulled off outside a business centre in the capital Moscow.

A statement by Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the three influencers were arrested on suspicion of misappropriation of an expensive car.

“It was preliminarily established that the young people, being on the Presnenskaya embankment, had called a business class taxi,” it read. “A German-made car worth more than 3.5 million rubles arrived to their order.

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“Two offenders got into the cabin of the foreign car and asked the driver to open the trunk and help their friend to load shopping packages there. When the man got out of the car, one of the defendants got behind the wheel and drove towards the Third Transport Ring of the capital.”

The ministry mentioned that the influencer told the driver that they were making fun of him after their prank after returning.

“As a result of operational search measures, the police on the same day detained the suspects on the Marshal Zhukov avenue. It turned out that the detainees blogged on social networks and regularly made videos with various pranks.

“It turned out that one of the accomplices, who was in the car, was filming the victim’s reaction to the hijacking.”

Investigator had initiated a criminal case on the grounds of an offence under part 2 of Article 166 of the Russian Criminal Code.