The Esso service station on Mechelininkatu in the centre of Helsinki became the target of an April Fool's prank played by the local radio station Radio Rock on Tuesday morning.
According to the radio, the gas station was selling its remaining beer in glass bottles at the price of the deposit bottle.
"The first customer showed up here at nine asking about the cheap beer. I didn't know what he was talking about", said service station attendant Marjo Timonen to Helsingin Sanomat.
Soon there was a queue of potential customers, and the station's telephone was jammed with calls, asking if all the cheap beer had been sold out.
Finally a regular customer showed up and said that cheap beer had been advertised on the radio. "Then we figured out that today is April Fool's day", Timonen laughed.
Timonen felt that the joke was a good one, but said that she wished that the station would have been informed about it in advance.
"I've been trying to tell customers that we do have beer - but they will have to pay the regular price."
