The limits of stupidity know no bounds. How do I know that? Well, because of stories like this.
In the age of the internet, people will do pretty much anything to go viral. Most of the time, it goes as far as making a fool out of themselves for a few extra hits on a video or coming up with a new internet challenge or something relatively.. safe. Then there are times like this, where someone does something so nonsensical, that it grounds a plane carrying 250 passengers.
A 28-year old Canadian man was charged after telling passengers on board the plane he was on that he was infected with the Wuhan coronavirus.
James Potok, who describes himself as an “artist” (lol) ended up being charged by Ontario Police with mischief and breach of recognizance. Footage on board the WestJet flight, which was making its way from Toronto to Montego Bay, Jamaica shows the dude wearing a surgical mask and informing passengers that he had just recently returned from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
WestJet flight to Jamaica was turned around halfway there when a 29 year old man announced that he had the Corona Virus … It appears to be a prank …250 passengers were standed in Toronto as well as others in Montego Bay , Jamaica pic.twitter.com/obscZav4FJ
— Gerald Frank (@drgeraldfg) February 4, 2020
According to CityNews, He told passengers ““I just came back from Hunan province, the capital of the coronavirus, I’m not feeling too well,”. His announcement resulted in WestJet turning the plane around to head back to Toronto.
The best part is, Wuhan isn’t even a part of the Hunan Province, so the aspiring rapper isn’t exactly the brightest of the bunch. Global health emergencies aren’t the kind of things you want to joke about and with more than 28,000 people affected and more than 560 dead, it’s not funny.
Just when you thought he couldn’t get any worse, Potok later told Global News that he was looking to get a viral video and that he figured it would invoke some kind of reaction like.. in his own words “this kid’s got some balls”. Potok currently has fewer than 1000 subscribers on YouTuber and around 36,000 followers on Instagram. The sad part is, Potok knew very well that any publicity is good publicity and that this stunt will get his numbers up.
Potok will appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton on Monday, March 9 for his hearing.
