Social media prank backfires as public sides with Red Baron worker

NEW YORK (CBS, KYMA) - There are a lot of viral pranks on social media. Most are harmless, but some go to far, and one viral moment is resonating with fed-up people everywhere.

In the video, a prankster played a cruel joke on a Red Baron worker stocking shelves at a grocery store in Michigan, but he wasn't having it in, and it struck a nerve online.

The pranks, littering social media, are designed for virality and laughs at other people's expense.

Content creators randomly tapped their phones to strangers, and then the familiar Apple Pay ding is heard, as if they're stealing money.

The "transactions" aren't real, but the people being pranked think they are, and one incident erupted in fury when Red Baron worker Walter Zerod was restocking frozen pizza at a grocery store in White Lake, Michigan.

When the prankster said, "It was just a joke," Zerod replied saying, "No, it's not a joke to me, okay? I don't have time for this crap in my life. My life is hard enough as it is. You're probably making money off this. I can't even pay my mortgage! And I got four kids at home, so not funny."

The man's frustration about his finances, and the possibility of losing his job, struck a nerve online.

"Shout out this guy for standing up for himself," said one TikTok user.

"You have no idea what someone is going through and how close they are to a breaking point," said one Instagram user.

"It describes most Americans in the world…people are stressed, people are tired, life is hard," said another Instagram user.

An online fundraiser has collected over $500,000 at the time of this writing, and it is still counting.

Meanwhile, social media platforms said the videos violate their bullying and harassment policies, but CBS News found dozens of accounts with that type of content.

"Your embarrassing moments are not private in any time, but I think that you shouldn't take advantage of someone when they didn't do anything wrong and didn't deserve to be put on blast for millions of people to see," said Stephanie McNeal, journalist and author of "Swipe Up for More."

The account that originally posted the video has been deactivated, and Zerod doesn't have to worry about losing his job.

In a post to social media, Red Baron said, "He's got a fan club...including us," and suggested he might get "Employee of the Month."