Thursday 25 / September / 2025
Muscat: A social media user who pretended to kidnap four small children and posted the video on the internet has been held by the Royal Oman Police (ROP). The prankster, who is an Omani youth based in Izki, had taken some of his relatives out on the pretence of buying them sweets and ice-cream and "for them to take part in a wonderful prank," according to him. He then left the children alone in a vehicle and returned with a friend in disguise with the motive of 'kidnapping them’ for the purposes of a prank video. The video, which was posted on Instagram and Youtube on 22 and 23 August, 2019 respectively, depicted the children crying and screaming for their parents while the oldest, who seemed to be under 10-years-old, attempted to reason with the pranksters and asked to go home, while the pranksters made fake phone calls talking about how they succeeded in kidnapping the children. A statement by the ROP read: "In relation to the video being shared on social media which involves a scene depicted the theft of a vehicle and the kidnapping of children, scaring them greatly by driving away under a disguise, the directorate for combatting crime has searched for the perpetrators and has arreated them. "Legal proceedings against the accused are currently underway." The video of the prank showed two people with their faces covered getting into the car and driving off with the children to an unspecified location. In the video, one child asked, "Where are you taking us? We want to go home." The prankster replied, "Nobody is going home." Speaking into a phone, he added, "Hello? We have succeeded in stealing them. Is the location ready?" The man who posted the video faced severe criticism on social media for his prank. One user said: "Doesn't this violate Omani law? You can't simply trick children into thinking they were kidnapped." "You should immediately delete this and ask for forgiveness, this is heart-breaking. "How could someone scare children to this degree on purpose?" the commentor added. The prankster then made a video in response to the backlash he got, saying to users: "The video was an act. "I told the children that I would take them to the store, get them ice-cream, and that they would help us as part of a really nice prank. "I would like to warn all parents from the bottom of my heart to not leave children alone in a vehicle. The children can mess with the car if they're alone, might be harmed from the heat, or of course could be stolen away. Now that I have explained this, I'll leave you with the clip to watch again. Let's go!" he added. The prankster's comments were made before the ROP took action against him.
