Two Slidell men, who thought they were playing a practical joke on a friend, ended up under arrest Wednesday after their prank literally ended up in flames.

The two men, Louis Pecou, 28, 40057 Ruby St., Apartment B, and Robert L. Mitchell Jr., 33, 3838 Pontchartrain Drive, Apartment C-120, decided on Sunday to play a joke on a friend of theirs and steal the person’s car, drive it to Pecou’s place and wait for their friend to call.

The only problem was, they stole the wrong car. The whole affair started Sunday at 7:30 p.m. when Slidell police responded to a call of a stolen 1988 Chrysler Lebaron that had been taken from a drugstore parking lot on Gause Boulevard. The woman, who owned the car and reported the theft, did not know Pecou and Mitchell, said Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz.

The next day, a St. Tammany Sheriff’s deputy responded to a call of a car fire off Apple Pie Road east of Slidell. The deputy reported that the car was the Chrysler that had been reported stolen Sunday.

Slidell detectives got a lead on the case pointing to Pecou as the suspect, and on Wednesday, police went to Pecou’s apartment. He admitted to police that he took the car and burned it.

Pecou told police about the practical joke, but when he got the car back to his apartment, he realized he had taken the wrong vehicle.

He panicked, according to the police report, and he first thought about returning the car to the parking lot, but when he got there, he saw the police and panicked again. He then bought a gallon of gasoline, put it in a gas can, drove the stolen car to a wooded area off Apple Pie Road and set the car on fire.

Pecou was arrested for theft of a motor vehicle. Police also learned that Mitchell helpe Pecou in the theft, and he was arrested as a principal to a theft of a motor vehicle on Wednesday. That was not the end of the duo’s troubles. The St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office also arrested the two men, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Greg Gonzales.

Deputies charged Pecou with simple arson, illegal possession of stolen things, obstruction of justice, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Mitchell was charged with being a principal to a commission of a crime. Ironically, Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan said the two could have avoided their legal problems.

“If (Pecou) would have just returned the car and told the officers what happened, all of this could have been avoided,” Drennan said.

Foltz said that as of Thursday morning, Pecou and Mitchell were still being held at the Slidell jail and would be transported to the St. Tammany Parish Jail.