Man Pranks Radnor Police Chief, Faces Charges

An attempt to pull a prank on Radnor's police chief has a Wayne man facing charges of disorderly conduct and filing false reports.

Back in July, Superintendent of Police William Colarulo received a text message on his phone from a 215 area code number that read, "The body has been disposed of now what do I do."

It's a common joke, but one that Colarulo could not take lightly. He texted back, "Who is this?" The person responded "Maguier."

That concerned Colarulo even more, as a police sergeant and the Radnor Fire Company chief have the last name Maguire.

Colarulo then texted, "Who are you trying to reach?" The person responded, "McGwire." Colarulo finished the exchange with, "I am notifying the police about your message. I do not know who you are."

It turns out that the person on the other end of that bizarre prank was Wayne resident Cliff Fleming, to whom Colarulo had once given his cell phone number. It's a common practice for the chief to give out his number to concerned and active citizens.

Recently Fleming waived the charges against him of disorderly conduct and filing a false report. He has apologized to Colarulo by letter, but "the joke consumed a lot of man hours, a lot of concern," said Radnor Det. Joseph Santoliquito.

On an NBC10 report about the incident, Fleming commented in the comments that "I thought it to be a prank and nothing else. I have the utmost respect for the superintendent and I never thought this would go this far. The embarrassment of all this will be with me for a very long time and and I deeply regret my poor judgement. To all that have been affected, I am truly sorry , more that anyone could know."

So how did police unravel the hoax? It turns out that Fleming had used the phone of a young girl while it was laying down on a bench at Radnor's Hareford dog park. The girl's brother had taken video and photos while at the park and one shows a man, whom Colarulo identified as Fleming, sitting on a bench using a phone.

Colarulo said that the joke about disposing of a body may be common on social media platforms, but "Police need to take this seriously."

And as for the odd "Maguier" and McGwire" texts, police say that Fleming was referring to MacGyver, the 1980s action-adventure television series in which secret agent Angus MacGuyver gets himself out of all sorts of trouble.