Woman in banana costume goes viral for calling 911 after wreck

A Florida woman wearing a banana costume gained superhero status after rushing to call 911 when a car driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into a restaurant’s outdoor dining shed.

Stephanie Oropeza and her fiance were heading home from a Halloween party around 4 a.m. Saturday when they came across the crash outside The Moderne Bar on Colonial Drive in Orlando.

“At first we were just in shock because at first it just started off him driving on the opposite side of the road,” Oropeza told ClickOrlando.com. “And then slowly he started just veering into The Moderne.

Surveillance video shows the vehicle crashing into the bar’s outdoor seating area and Oropeza — still donning a banana costume — calling 911.

“He kind of just smushed everything all the way to the front,” she told the outlet.

Oropeza was identified as the hero after The Moderne posted the surveillance footage of her making the call for help and asked locals for help identifying her.

Michael Nguyen, who owns The Moderne, told ClickOrlando that the situation was so bizarre that some people thought the video wasn’t real.

“They were like, ‘Is this AI? Like, are you messing with us?’” Nguyen said. “And I was like, ‘No, no, this is really a rogue 4:30 a.m. banana just roaming the streets of Mills, just saving the day, reporting the incident.’”

Oropeza joked that she realized she was going viral after waking up and seeing “the headline is ‘banana hero,’” she said.

The restaurant later thanked her with a free meal.

“It feels nice,” Oropeza said, adding that she hopes it encourages others to help those they see in need.

No one was hurt in the crash. However, Nguyen said the accident caused significant damage to the establishment, wrecking at least six tables and dozens of chairs. He estimated that repairs would likely cost between $30,000 and $50,000.

Information about the driver involved was not immediately available on Sunday.