Woman in banana costume calls 911 after car crashes into restaurant

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 26 Oct, 13:43 · Archive

A Florida woman in a banana costume called 911 after a car crashed into a restaurant's outdoor seating area.

Stephanie Oropeza and her fiancé were heading home from a Halloween party around 4 a.m. on Saturday when they came across a car crash outside The Moderne Bar on Colonial Drive in Orlando. The driver was initially on the wrong side of the road before veering into the restaurant's outdoor dining area. Oropeza, still wearing her banana costume, called 911 to report the crash.

Surveillance footage of Oropeza making the emergency call went viral online. The Moderne's owner, Michael Nguyen, posted the video and asked for help identifying her. The unusual nature of the footage — a person in a bright yellow banana costume calling for help — led some people to question whether it was genuine or artificially generated. Nguyen said viewers initially thought he was fabricating the incident.

Oropeza realised she had become internet famous when she woke up the next morning and saw headlines calling her a 'banana hero'. The restaurant tracked her down and thanked her with a free meal. The crash caused significant damage, with Nguyen estimating that repairs to the custom fence alone could cost up to £50,000. Six tables and dozens of chairs were also destroyed. No one was injured in the incident.

How it is being reported

• Florida woman goes viral for reporting crash while in banana costume"This is really a rogue 4:30 a.m. banana just roaming the streets of Mills, just saving the day, reporting the incident."New York Post · 26 Oct, 13:31
• Not all heroes wear capes: Woman in banana costume goes viral for calling 911 after wreckViral surveillance footage showed the banana standing by the accident with a phone in her hand calling 911Independent World · 25 Oct, 19:23

In this story: Stephanie Oropeza · Michael Nguyen · The Moderne Bar · Orlando · Florida

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