Suit: Cicero pizzeria getting 500 prank calls a day, inspired by video game

A fictional pizzeria central to a horror video game is making kids curious if its inspiration is Freddy’s Pizza in west suburban Cicero — curious enough to prank call the real-life restaurant roughly 500 times a day, the restaurant claims.

In the video game “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” players help maintain the fictional Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, run by animatronic robot animals, according to a website where you can download the game. But the real goal is to protect yourself from the robots when they begin to get creepy and unruly.

“Can you survive five nights at Freddy’s?” the website asks.

But players have also been calling Freddy’s Pizza — a real establishment at 1600 S. 61st Ave. in Cicero — asking whether they’re the Freddy’s Fazbear’s from the game, according to a petition for discovery filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court. Because of the game, the restaurant has been overwhelmed with 500 to 700 calls a day since Oct. 28, 2014.

“Just so that it is clear, Freddy’s Pizza in Cicero, Illinois has nothing to do with Five Nights at Freddy’s or Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza,” the petition said.

The restaurant is asking Google and YouTube to release the names of people who have posted at least five videos in which people verbally or visually display Freddy’s phone number.

In one of the videos, a girl makes two calls to the restaurant that don’t go through. Her friend then asks, “Are there kids in there right now?” The caller responds, “No, no one except the animatronics.”

On the third attempt, a woman who answers the phone says, “You need to stop calling here. The police department is being given your phone number and your name.” Both girls become visibly upset.

A girl who calls in another video gets her call answered by a man claiming to be from Illinois State Police.

The calls — which the restaurant claims are frequently placed during non-school hours — are harassing to employees, the petition said. The Thanksgiving holiday was especially torturous, the restaurant said, hinting that most calls are made by children.

“The volume of the telephone calls has crippled Freddy’s Pizza’s business in that its telephone line is constantly in use as a result of these ‘prank’ calls,” the petition said.

YouTube and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The restaurant has filed a report with Cicero police, the suit claims.

Freddy’s is asking YouTube and Google for the names, cell phone numbers, dates of birth, genders, email addresses and IP addresses associated with the users posting the videos.