Five girls in the small town of Ravenna, Ohio decided for April Fools Day to make Mario question blocks and leave them around town. Unfortunately for them, some of the local residents aren't too up on their gaming history and believed the packages could be explosives. The bomb squad had to be called in, and the girls could now face criminal charges.

I don't think there's a worse example of terrorism hysteria than when towns of 12,000 people worry that someone deciding to strike out violently against the establishment would settle on Jeb's Watering Hole in Ratpiss, Nebraska at his target.

However, their concern wasn't entirely without merit. It's not a very smart idea to run around leaving random, unattended packages in buildings, especially ones with big question marks on them, and especially when you leave all the packages in front of public and government buildings. They left four at the local courthouse, for God's sake. You can just make out in the photo what the box looks like, as RecordPub.com described it as "wrapped in gold paper and had black question marks painted on the sides." So it really looks less like a power block and more like something the Riddler would leave. In contrast, there are a few actually interesting examples at the Mario question blocks site, especially the ones hanging by fishing line so they really look like they're floating. Just sticking them in front of buildings or throwing them into trees doesn't make much sense.

All the same, I'm hoping they don't actually charge these girls with anything. I think they've learned enough of a lesson already.

Source: On Nintendo