Halloween, otherwise known as that fleeting period of time when it’s socially acceptable to walk into a bar dressed like a demon, is often associated with more than just a temporary wardrobe adjustment. Egg yolks, toilet papering the yard — do either of these ring a bell? (Ding-dong ditch.) The Halloween prank frequently emerges from the uncanny and mischievous spirit of the day’s festivities. But what happens when a prank takes a turn for the worse?

Here is a countdown of the top six Halloween pranks whose epic failures merit a palm to the forehead.

6. Employer Arrested for Creating a Bloody Scene at Work

In Kentucky, Joe Watkins ruffled some feathers with a Halloween prank at his restaurant called the Chicken Ranch. Little did he know he’d end up in handcuffs. Watkins set up a phony crime scene in the restaurant with the intent of making an employee believe he had been murdered. When the employee came to work and found Watkins covered in blood, she ran out and immediately called the police. Watkins tried reaching her on her cell phone, but the employee had already alerted the police of her employer’s supposed murder. Watkins was later arrested for causing a false alarm.

5. Teenager’s Egg Throwing Results In Great Ball of Fire

A 15-year-old Pennsylvania teenager was just throwing around eggs when he decided to throw one or two over the fence of a Pennsylvania Electric Company substation. The splattered egg, along with rain, hit the 34,000-watt transformer, generating a ball of fire that was seen across town. As a result of the electrical eruption, about 8,000 people lost power in their homes for a few minutes. The boy turned himself in, and also had to be treated at a hospital for ringing ears syndrome that he developed as a result of the explosive noise.

4. Grisly Driveway Display Prompts 911 Call

A few weeks ago, Johnnie Mullins set up a repulsive display in his driveway in Mustang, Oklahoma. Mullins used a dummy and a whole lot of fake blood to make it look as though someone had been decapitated by his garage door. Though Mullins didn’t find anything wrong with the bogus crime scene, his neighbors did, and one of them even called 911. Mullins’ reply? Adding another fake body that had seemingly been run over by his car to the mix. Take a look:

3. Taunton High School Teacher Taunts Students with Chainsaw Prank

A few years ago, a teacher at Taunton High School looking to spread some Halloween humor entered a classroom masked and armed — with a chainsaw. Whether the chainsaw was real or fake is unknown, but one student was so startled by this sight that he tripped over a chair in an attempt to get away, and ended up fracturing a bone and injuring his knee. In the end, the boy’s knee required surgery, and his family started a legal suit seeking $100,000 in damages.

2. MIT Student’s Prank Literally Falls Apart in His Very Hands

An MIT student and member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity was promoting a Halloween party to benefit the Leukemia Society of America when a mechanical creation of his actually self-destructed in his own hands. The device, meant to shoot out confetti at the Halloween party, exploded in the hands of its creator. The student, dressed as the Grim Reaper at the time, suffered serious hand injuries. He and his two friends ultimately had to pay a fine of $1,306.42 to the Cambridge Fire Department and perform a certain number of community service hours to make up for the incident. Regardless of this complete debacle, Phi Kappa Sigma presented a check of $14,267 to the Leukemia Society.

1. Harvard Doctor Causes Zombie Plague Scare

In a New York Times article published today, Dr. Steven Schlozman wrote about his interview on a late night radio show a couple years ago. In the interview, Schlozman was asked to use his expertise in zombie neuroscience to explain the nature of a new disease, Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome. A doctor at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had recently died of this disease while studying it, and there was speculation that a group of businessmen originated the disease with the end goal of causing a major stock market collapse. Though the content of this radio show was entirely made up, Schlozman’s description of this emerging zombie plague sparked the concern of listeners who actually thought the whole story was real. Schlozman received frantic emails asking questions like “What’s the best medicine to stave off the zombie infection?” and “How do I keep my house safe from the zombie onslaught?” He even got accused of violating the Hippocratic oath. So before you barricade your house to prevent yourself from contracting Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome (A.N.S.D.) this Halloween, you can rest assured that it was all a hoax.