YouTube-famous duo Alan and Alex Stokes — otherwise known as The Stokes Twins — have been charged with multiple felony counts after they pretended to rob two banks for a since-deleted video shot in October 2019, titled “BANK ROBBER PRANK! (gone wrong).”
According to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, both 23 year olds were “each charged with one felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency.”
The press release announced that the twins are being accused of “being dressed all in black, wearing ski masks, and carrying duffle bags full of cash” while pretending that they “had just robbed a bank.” Following the incident, their videographer allegedly filmed them while they called an Uber with a driver who “refused to drive them” because they were “unaware” of the prank.
“A bystander witnessed this, believing the two men had just robbed a bank and were attempting to carjack the Uber driver,” the press release also said.
At the time, Irvine police arrived at the scene and determined the Uber driver had not been involved. Authorities said, “Police issued a warning to the Stokes brothers about the dangers of their conduct and let them go.”
On the same day, hours later, police received calls from people on the campus of the University of California, Irvine who believed that a bank was being robbed. Alan and Alex allegedly performed the same prank a second time.
“These were not pranks,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in a statement. “These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect the public and when someone calls 911 to report an active bank robbery they are going to respond to protect lives. Instead, what they found was some kind of twisted attempt to gain more popularity on the internet by unnecessarily putting members of the public and police officers in danger.”
The District Attorney’s press release also said that if convicted on all counts, “They each face a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.”
Alex and Alan have not returned J-14‘s request for comment.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.