SACRAMENTO, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Allegedly due to a teenage prank with an eye toward a video Web site, a California drive-through clerk has serious burns police say will lead to an arrest.
David Almas, 21, an American River College student who said he aspires to become a police officer, was entering the next order at a Sacramento Boston Market restaurant Friday when he was hit in the face and neck with an order of creamed spinach that had just been cooked to a temperature of 180 degrees, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The teens, three boys and a girl, who allegedly perpetrated the prank could face felony battery charges, a Sacramento Police Department spokeswoman, Dee Dee Gunther, said.
"There is a good chance I'll have some permanent scarring," Almas said.
The prank was inspired by television programs dating back to 1999 through the current "Jackass" show, with a desire to put recordings of pranks on video-hosting Web sites like YouTube.com and access a national audience fueling such activities, the Bee reported.
Pranks on drive-through clerks likely have been around since the invention of the drive-through, said California Restaurant Association spokesman Daniel Conway.
"(But) recently with YouTube and the Internet, it's been more of a sophomoric sensation," he said.
Conway said restaurants' surveillance cameras should be in place to help with arresting assailants, and clerks should watch out for passengers recording their visit.
Camera phones and video hosting sites have made it easier for people to become "Jackass" pranksters themselves, David Zuckerman, a California State University, Sacramento, professor and pop culture expert said.
"If you can't make yourself a celebrity by doing something cool, you can make yourself a celebrity by doing something cruel," he said.
