A long-standing University of British Columbia tradition turned sour when it resulted in five engineering students being arrested, and a Volkswagon Beetle falling to the bottom of the Burard Inlet.
Since 1981, students commemorate the beginning of engineering week at the UBC by hanging a Volkswagen from a bridge. This year, however, something went wrong.
First, police caught the would-be pranksters in the act at around 4 a.m. on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. Police reported the VW plunged into the river when the pranksters’ ropes gave way. Howver UBC’s associate dean of engineering Brian Dunwoody claims that the VW fell into the water after a city crew attempted to remove the prank.
Police will be recommending $5,000 mischief charges for the five students, a punishment comparable to offences like fraud and domestic abuse. In 2001, UBC students avoided charges for hanging a VW off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Regardless of the legal outcome, the arrests raise questions about the future of the prank tradition.
