{"id":440862,"date":"2026-10-28T21:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T21:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/440862\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T21:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T21:46:20","slug":"banana-hero-goes-viral-after-car-crashes-into-orlando-bar-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/440862\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Banana Hero’ goes viral after car crashes into Orlando bar | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ORLANDO, Florida (WESH<\/a>) — An Orlando woman is going viral after calling 911 while dressed in a banana costume.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Oropeza and her fianc\u00e9 were going home from a Halloween party when they witnessed the crash at The Moderne bar on Colonial Drive around 4 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI yelled at my fianc\u00e9. I was like, \u2018You need to stop the car right now,\u2019\u201d Oropeza said. \u201cAnd then we start running, and I\u2019m on the phone with 911.\u201d<\/p>\n

The car slammed through tables, umbrellas and a fence outside the bar. The building itself was not damaged and no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

Oropeza did not realize surveillance cameras had captured her running toward the scene in the bright yellow costume.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing that would have occurred to me is that there was a surveillance camera and that the next day I\u2019d wake up to \u2018Banana Hero,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Moderne posted the surveillance video on social media while trying to identify the costumed caller. Management offered her a dinner as a thank-you.<\/p>\n

The last-minute Halloween costume quickly turned Oropeza into a viral sensation. Oropeza said she has barely taken off the costume since Saturday and is enjoying her newfound fame.<\/p>\n

Still, she hopes the attention highlights a more important lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely feel like I just did something that I hope most people do when you see someone in need \u2014 just help them out and call who you need to call so they can get the help they need,\u201d Oropeza said. \u201cDespite knowing them or not, despite being in a costume or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oropeza said the driver of the vehicle stayed at the scene and cooperated with police.<\/p>\n

Management at The Moderne said it is also creating a banana-flavored specialty cocktail in Oropeza\u2019s honor. The drink is expected to be added to the menu this week.<\/p>\n

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.<\/p>\n

\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2026 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Click here for updates on this story \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — An Orlando woman is going viral after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12053,115,139,141,140,278],"class_list":["post-440862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-national-and-world-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}