Better Watch What You Say

Eric Kopp of the Okeechobee News got a shock when he sat down to proof the April 2 edition of the Okeechobee News.

For a long time, when Eric has proofed the obituary page, he has made the same joke "guess I better check to see if I am on the page."

On Tuesday, April 1,  he opened page 6 with that same comment, and started to scan the page on the screen. A few moments later he exclaimed, "Wait a minute! What's my picture doing there!"

Kristina Schwartz, who put the obituary page together, was the prankster. The humorous obituary she wrote listed Eric's age as "Ancient."

She explained that when she realized April 1 would be on a production day for the thrice-weekly Okeechobee News, she couldn't resist playing an April Fool's Day joke.

Eric commented that he had been a little suspicious as rest of the staff (who were all in the joke) seemed to be hovering around the news desk where he was proofing pages. Still, he said seeing his own obit was a complete surprise.

Diane Timmons printed a copy of the fake obit page out for Eric, before making sure the prank obit was deleted from the computer files (although we saved a pdf) and giving Eric the real page 6 to proof.