An Indi­ana mid­dle school stu­dent said his lost phone led to a prank that con­vinced stu­dents and teach­ers at his school he was dead. Michael Sink­field, 14, who attends River­side Junior High in Fish­ers, said he lost his phone Fri­day and many of his friends then received text mes­sages from the device Sun­day night claim­ing to be from his father and say­ing the youth had died in a car crash. The news quickly spread through social media net­works, lead­ing to shock when Sink­field boarded the bus Mon­day morn­ing and went to school. Sink­field said who­ever had his phone changed his Face­book pass­word, so he was unable to alert friends to the lost device or log in to see the news of his own demise. The fam­ily said they do not know who was behind the prank.

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