WATCH: 'Pranktavist' gets revenge on litterbug runners
The video could not be loaded.
A resident fed up with runners littering outside his house got his revenge with what he described as “the most fun we have had in a while”.
Niel Viljoen procured a starter’s pistol and fired it 15 seconds before Saturday’s 15km Spookhill Challenge was due to start outside his Somerset West house.
Then he made a video of the ensuing confusion‚ as hundreds of runners set off early and race organisers gazed around in bewilderment.
Viljoen said the annual race‚ organised by Helderberg Harriers‚ started at Beaumont Primary School opposite his house‚ and “although it is well organised I inevitably end up picking up the rubbish left behind”.
In what he described as an act of “pranktavism”‚ Viljoen said he waited for the “30 seconds to go” warning and the announcer to stop speaking before firing his pistol at 8am on Saturday.
In a Facebook post on Monday‚ race announcer Sean Falconer‚ the editor of Modern Athlete magazine‚ said: “We thought it was naughty kids.”
Addressing Viljoen‚ he said: “My first instinct was to say ‘bad boy!’ but when you pointed out that your reason for the prank was motivated by the waste left behind by runners‚ I had no choice but to agree with you.”
Viljoen said organisers moved the start of the 5km race two houses away. “But I will have to wait until 2018 to see if they have mended their litterbug ways. If not‚ I may have something even more interesting planned for the runners in 2019.”