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Four teens drive up to the front of Santikos Silverado movie theater in Northwest San Antonio with hard rock blaring from the stereo.
To the amazement of theater-goers waiting in line, three of the teens throw open the doors and start dancing wildly to the beat.
When the song ends, they jump back into their car and speed away.
This scene, which took place about four months ago and is an example of a flash mob, an event organized by a group of people who meet at an appointed time and place to perform predetermined actions that are typically meant to confuse and amuse spectators.
Stevens High School graduate Christian Ortega, 18, was one of the dancers at the movie theater.
"My friends blasted the music, and we all jumped out (of the vehicle) and started moshing," Ortega said.
"When the breakdown was over, we drove away."
The teen dancers didn't know they had participated in a flash mob. Unaware their actions had a name, the teens were just trying to have a good time.
While flash mobs are usually silly pranks, Gloria Pimentel, chair of the sociology department at San Antonio College, thinks they can be used for positive purposes as well.
"There are so many positive things we could do other than hit each other with pillows," Pimentel said, referring to a flash mob pillow fight this year in Taiwan.
When a student at Roosevelt High School died in May, Roosevelt graduate Malina Colon found herself in the middle of a flash mob organized by the late Nick Berry's close friends and classmates.
"I got a text that said to wear red and black the next day to remember him by. I guess those were his colors," Colon said.
"The next day a lot of people were wearing red and black, so I figured the text must have gotten around."
Flash mobs can be organized through text message or social networking Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter.
The trend started with Improv Everywhere, an organization based in New York whose mission is to "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places" through flash mobs.
The mob is infamous for organizing more than 80 pranks since 2001, including sending 111 shirtless men into an Abercrombie & Fitch and a large group of agents into a Best Buy dressed in blue polo shirts and khaki pants reminiscent of an employee uniform, according to the group's Web site at www.improveverywhere.com.
Some flash mob stunts have ended with the police being called by confused store managers or concerned bystanders. Improv Everywhere's Web site states that the group "may break store policies or park regulations from time to time, but we do not break the law."
The founder, Charlie Todd, wrote "Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere" that was released May 19 by William Morrow. The book traces the group's antics and gives tips for readers to stage their own.
"It can be fun as long as they don't break any laws or harm anyone," Pimentel said. "I'd rather have this than people going out and taking all kinds of drugs. If you're having fun, go for it."
Austin and Dallas have a large Improv Everywhere fan base on the Urban Prankster Network, where fans can set up their own bases in their hometowns. These mini mob groups can then set up their own flash mob events around the city.
"Just be careful about who you are meeting and what is going on," Pimentel said.
In San Antonio, only 20.2 percent of 84 students surveyed by the Urban Journalism Workshop have received texts notifying them of flash mob activities, such as a food fight or senior prank. And some of the pranks didn't pan out.
"The week before I graduated, there was a mass text sent out telling seniors to bring a roll of toilet paper to school, so that we could toilet paper a portion of the school," Colon said.
Pimentel believes that using flash mobs for good could be the next step for the flash mob trend in San Antonio.
She suggests meeting at a nursing home and reading or talking to the residents, or surprising a family who is not so well-off with a basket of groceries.
Pimentel refers to ideas like these as "random acts of kindness."
"You could target college students, go to an elementary school, blow whistles and tell them, 'We are SAC students and we love you' and run away," Pimentel said. "It's still random. I would join that one."
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