A YouTube prankster has explained how he simply walked into Molineux unchecked by security to plant the phone which interrupted the BBC ’s FA Cup broadcast with porn noises.
The broadcaster’s coverage of Liverpool ’s 1-0 win over Wolves in a third-round replay went viral after the prank by Dan Jarvis, known as Jarvo69, or BMWJarvo. Gary Lineker did his best to remain professional and move past the noises, but it was an embarrassing gaffe nonetheless.
Javis’ story of how he set up the prank raises alarm bells for Wolves and the Molineux stadium security. The 30-year-old and a friend pretended they were a part of the BBC’s film crew on Monday to wander into the stadium.
“Sneaking into Molineux was really easy,” he told The Sun. “We just walked in behind one camera crew person, who had a lot of cameras on him. We just walked straight in, like ‘yeah I’m meant to be here, I know what I’m doing’. We blended in.”
He added: “These things are all about confidence. We got in because we made it look like we were meant to be there, so no one bats an eyelid. If you hesitate, then you’ll get asked questions. But people from Wolves thought we were with the TV, and vice versa.”
Jarvis says he spent 90 minutes wandering around inside Molineux. A video shows him walking out of the tunnel and onto the pitch, sitting in the dugout, conducting a mock interview in the mixed zone and looking out from the executive boxes.
Eventually he got onto the BBC’s set and, after toying with the idea of planting the £20 phone with the X-rated extra-loud ringtone under a chair or a table, he stuck it to the wall of the set, somewhere high up and out of sight.
“Staff didn’t say anything,” he said. “I was tempted to jump in the home changing room ice bath but didn’t have a towel. I also used the toilet in the away dressing room, which is terrible: it’s like a PE changing room from the ’90s. After we planted the phone, we had a beer and got out.”
Jarvis tested out the phone by ringing it at 1am to check it had not been found. Once the BBC went live at 7.30pm on Tuesday, he jumped into action, ringing his burner phone on 12 occasions.
It had the desired effect, with viewers on the BBC shocked to clearly hear the porn noises from their TVs. Lineker cut away to Alan Shearer in the commentary box and later tweeted to show the BBC crew had discovered the phone.
He wrote: “Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing." The BBC later released a statement saying they were investigating how the incident happened. Mirror Football have contacted Wolves for comment.
Jarvis favourite type of prank involves pitch invasion. He was handed a suspended sentence in October for aggravated trespass after being found guilty of invading the pitch at the Oval during a Test match between England and India in 2021.
