Prankish husband mistaken for armed robber

COCOA BEACH, Fla., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A couple staying at a Florida motel became armed robbery suspects when an employee reported seeing someone in a mask entering their room.

It turned out the masked intruder was the husband, who had donned a hockey mask to play a joke on his wife, The Cocoa Beach Tribune reported.

The Super 8 motel in Cocoa Beach was held up at gunpoint Thursday morning by three men wearing Halloween masks. When police got the tip that the robbers might actually be motel guests, they surrounded the room occupied by a Monticello, N.Y., couple.

The couple, who were about to leave on a cruise, returned from a shopping trip to find police officers who had searched their room, finding the hockey mask and a can of silly string.

“It was an unfortunate situation,” Betty Banks told the newspaper.

Investigators now believe the robbers fled the scene in a white Cadillac.