By John Guy LaPlante

Did you hear about the awful Burger King “punking” here and of the young manager who paid a big price? News about it went national.

The punking happened Saturday evening, Feb. 15. I’m writing about it now because I’m finally getting to the bottom of it.

“Punked” means being “pranked” in a crazy, monstrous, spectacular way. It made the news far and wide. A friend in Massachusetts said he had heard all about it. “Awful!” he said. ”Incredible!”

It happened a few minutes before 11 p.m., closing time for inside service. An occasional car was pulling up in the drive-thru, which closes at midnight.

The night manager, whom we’ll call “Peter” (a fictitious name), is in his late 20s. He is understandably embarrassed. He took a terrible shellacking in public opinion that, in my view, wasn’t 100-percent fair.

I met with him twice afterwards. Told him I wanted to present his side in a blog post. He was hesitant. I told him I would show him what I wrote before publication. He said “Okay.”

He had been working 10 months for Burger King. He started at $10 an hour. After his second month, he was promoted to night manager. Presumably the two people who own the franchise saw potential in him. He got a raise to $10.50 an hour.

It was Pete’s first management job. In high school he’d worked at another fast food joint for a few weeks, and in the intervening years, worked at this and that.

Burger King was giving him about 27-hours a week. He says he knew of nobody there working a 40-hour week, except possibly the daytime manager. He received no holidays off, no medical insurance, no perks at all.

He is married with a young child. His wife works part-time in a local retail store. He needed additional work and found some doing drywall and rough carpentry for a local contractor. So, he had two jobs.

At about 10:40 p.m. he got a call on Burger King’s landline, supposedly from the Morro Bay Fire Department. A man, he says, very mature, and very official sounding told him dangerous levels of natural gas had been detected at the Burger King. He did not explain how the fire department knew this. The official told him to turn off the gas suppressor in the kitchen. He would hang on the line.

Pete said he didn’t know where this gas suppressor was. He was in training, he said, but had never been told of that equipment. It took him a minute or two to find it, turn it off and return to the phone.

The official, who never gave a name, was still on the line. He told Pete there was still a danger of an explosion. He told him to open the windows and to break them if necessary, to let fresh air in. Pete said the official was on the phone 10 minutes or more.

First, Pete opened the restaurant’s two main doors, but they close automatically, so that wouldn’t do.

The restaurant (which seats about 40) has 18 big picture windows (that don’t open).

Working with him that night were two young men and he said there were two customers inside. Pete ordered everybody out, but how to let fresh air in? Pete got a tire iron from his car and he and the others went around smashing windows.

And then he got into his car and drove it into the main door. Not a big crash, he did it slowly, firmly, he said, just enough to open the door. Then he drove to the other door. Same thing. Yes, he went all out.

A fire truck and a police car arrived, red lights but no sirens — it was so late, so quiet out. The firefighters rushed in, equipment in hand. They smelled no gas, found the gas connections intact, and saw no mechanical problems. The caller  from the “fire department” had hung up.

It was 3 a.m. by the time Pete got home to his wife and child. He explained the whole thing. Wow! Finally, they got to bed. He couldn’t sleep, but he felt good. He had done his best in the huge emergency. The biggest he’d ever faced.

But the shocking fact was that Pete had been punked. The emergency was totally phony. It was all a lie.

The Bay News reported the damage was estimated at $35,000. And that police checked the Burger King phone and were trying to determine the details of that call and the mystery man who made it.

So who was that fire department “official?” A mischievous Burger King hourly worker? A disgruntled Burger King executive? Was it some nut just out to have excitement and create havoc? It’s anybody’s guess.

Looking for more facts I went to the Morro Bay Police Station and met Chief Amy Christey. She said Cpl. Mark Martin was investigating. Martin said similar scams had occurred at fast food restaurants in several other states, then said, “Yes, an investigation is under way. That’s all I can tell you.”

The following day Pete was suspended, and two days later, fired. The reason was that his presence on the job would be a continued embarrassment and diversion. In other words, a big PR headache. They had him sign a paper and Pete wasn’t exactly sure what it said and that he was not given a copy.

I’m a regular at Burger King, stopping in for coffee and to do some reading or writing. I’m enough of a regular that the workers have my coffee waiting for me when I come in. I saw Pete as an eager, smart, hard-working young man; never idle for a minute. I admired him.

Of course I heard numerous comments and emails about this punking. Everyone thinks Pete screwed up, grossly over-reacted and they blame him. “Burger King was right in canning him,” they said. His co-workers said he freaked out that night. I tracked him down and he reluctantly agreed to talk.

I was afraid he would be at home in bed, hugging his pillow, blankets pulled over his head, in black despair. But he was in remarkably good shape, calm and composed. I’d be very angry but Pete wasn’t.

He’s gone back to working in construction and struggles to make ends meet. He said he gets many hugs. “Many people are for me. My family are,” he said, “and they’re all over the place here.”

His car sustained major damage and there’s no insurance money to be collected. The car wasn’t worth repairing, and he has no money for another. Of course, he needs one. He wants to enroll at Cuesta and maybe become an electrician.

I tracked down the restaurant owners, who were also reluctant to talk. “Who are you?” were his first words.

I said I was a regular customer, was appalled by the punking, knew Pete the ex-night manager as a fine worker, and as a writer, I wanted to get his side of this extraordinary story.

He and his wife own three Burger Kings, and “Yes,” Pete was fired. Yet, he agreed with me that Pete was a good worker.

He said the same thing had occurred in several other states and that the fake official from the fire department was a youth in Canada — aged 15 or 17. The FBI was asked to investigate but declined because the alleged perpetrator was up there.

That sounded preposterous, even crazy. Pete said the caller had been a “mature” man, authoritative. He said telephone voices can be changed digitally. What’s the motivation? He had no idea.

The $35,000 damage estimate turned out to be accurate and while the restaurant was undergoing a remodel, replacing the windows was not part of the planned expense.

After the call, I had a good opinion of the man, although I didn’t like his canning Pete, though it was his right to do so.

This is such a fascinating story. Who pulled off that punking?

John “Guy” LaPlant is a retired journalist and author from Connecticut who spends about half the year in Morro Bay. He does a radio show on 97.3 FM The Rock, “Talking with Old Guy John,” 1 p.m. Saturdays. See his blog at: johnguylaplante.com/wp.