If You See an 'In-N-Out Coming Soon' Sign, It's Probably a Stupid Prank

In-N-Out, every 18-year-old Instagram celebrity’s favorite burger joint, has more than 320 locations scattered throughout five states. Although Texas has 15 In-N-Outs, neighboring Oklahoma doesn’t have a single Animal-Style burger anywhere in the state, which is why that “COMING SOON” sign in Oklahoma City caught everyone’s attention over the weekend. But because life is cruel and disappointing, it was only an April Fool’s joke—and just another on a long list of annual In-N-Out-related pranks.

On Sunday, the Wild 104.9 radio station posted a picture of a large sign staked near a construction site in the city. “In-N-Out Burger Coming Soon,” it said, right beside the chain’s logo. “Happy Easter!,” the station wrote on Facebook. “Anyone else see this sign at 63rd & NW Expressway?” The post attracted more than 700 comments, some from cautious optimists, other from realists who had looked at a calendar and noted the date. (“There’s a better chance of Jesus coming back,” one rational man replied).

The sign quickly disappeared, further confirming that it was just a dumb joke. “[W]e do not have any immediate plans to expand there,” an In-N-Out spokesperson told KFOR. “We’ll be sure to keep OKC in mind as we continue expanding.”

Meanwhile in Loveland, Colorado, another soulless prankster hung a large vinyl sign on a construction site, with the chain’s logo and “HERE SOON May 2018” written beside it. "We touched it. Somebody spent money on that sign. It was a legit sign,” one resident told the Reporter Herald, adding “That's pretty mean.”

It’s also pretty played out. A Denver art gallery managed to fool the city’s dumbest residents by taping a paper “In-N-Out Here Soon” sign in its windows. “We hoped it would go viral given people tend to react first then think when it comes to In-N-Out Burger rumors, but ended up seeding it ourselves on Sunday afternoon,” sign creator and worst man alive David Moke told 303 Magazine. “The response was pretty quickly split between people who thought it was a joke and those who believed it. I think it was just believable enough for people to say ‘well, it might be true.’”

This happens more often than you’d think. Last April, Atlanta residents were the ones being pranked, and so was the Sunnyside neighborhood in Queens. Before that, those signs were posted at multiple locations throughout New York City. Guys. GUYS. Please don’t do this next year.

Tell people they’re getting a Blaze Pizza instead.