I have now been the victim of TWO malicious pranks this past week.  :whip:  I am somewhat of a prankster myself and am not used to being on the receiving end.    Now, I must have my revenge.  I thought I'd start this thread to get/share some ideas with the board.

 

The first prank I fell victim to this year was done by my so-called 'trusted assistant'.  I came back from lunch to find a phone message on my desk from a "Ms. Ellie Phant."  I know.... I was terribly gullible with this one, but you have to understand that if you just glance at a phone message real quick and not say the name out loud, it is not as obvious.  Of course, the message was to call her at her place of employment and a number was provided which turned out to be the Zoo.  Being professional, I asked to speak with "Ms. Phant".  The receptionist asked "who?".  And I said, "Ms. Phant.... Ms. Ellie Phant."  As soon as I said the full name out loud and the lady began to chuckle, I knew I had been had.  Luckily, the lady at the Zoo, who probably hears this joke several times a year, had a good sense of humor.

 

The second prank occured just last night.  I am letting my dog outside when I notice a huge yellow sign in the middle of my front yard.  I have new neighbors moving in who are doing some renovations, so I assumed some contractor just put the sign in the wrong yard.  However, when I came around to the see who to blame for the mistake, my eyes widened because it said, in big black letters, "AUCTION" and gave the location of the auction, invited interested parties, etc.  I snatched the sign up and called the number on it.  This was at night, so I get the lady who doesn't really know anything and probably deals with irrate home owners all the time.  She was going through the motions and I was starting to get mad.  Here is what the conversation went like:

 

Me:  "I think you guys made a mistake because there is a big yellow sign in my front yard announcing some kind of auction"

Her:  "It was in your front yard?"

Me:  "Yes"

Her:  "I'm sorry sir, they were not supposed to do that if you are living there"

Me:  Pause.... "What does that mean"

Her:  "We'll have them fix that for you sir"

Me:  Pause.... "What are you talking about"

Her:  "The sign in your front yard sir"

Me:  "I still don't understand what you are saying, but it is not there anymore"

Her:  "Who moved it"

Me:  "I did"

Her:  "You can't do that sir"

Me:  Pause.... "What do you mean I can't do that, it is a mistake"

Her:  "Right, it is not supposed to be in your front yard"

Me:  "It is not supposed to be in front of my house"

Her:  "Right... they weren't supposed to put it in your yard"

Me:  "Look lady......."

 

I was just about 2.2 seconds away from blowing a gasket when I heard my neighbor chuckling down the street..... f'ing a-hole.  If I had looked more closely I would have noticed that the posting was for an August 27, 2009 auction that had already taken place.

 

What's worse is that I have my new neighbors moving in who probably now think I am some kind of deadbeat and my prankster neighbor said it took a total of 10 minutes from the time he put the sign up for the nosy old lady accross the street to call him to gossip and bemoan what might happen to everybody's property values.

 

My assistant is a woman and I can't get into my neighbor's house, so the classic saran wrap over the toilet is not an option (for those who don't know you can make an awful mess of things if you put it on the bowl under the seat and pull it tight enough so no creases are visible). 

 

I have some other ideas, but welcome suggestions.

I like flaming bags of poop. Not for myself, mind you, but as a prank on others. There's the double benefit of 1) watching your neighbor fall prey to a classic, and 2) being able to imitate Billy Madison. I think this is best appreciated when drunk.

>:D >:D >:D

 

I was paged.  LOL

 

As a person who is from a large family of "pranksters" and works in an office full of pranksters.  I may be of assistance.

 

First, fire your assistant, but get someone from HR to go along with it.  That will "learn" her!

 

The neighbor......tell me more about them.

 

First rule of Pranking

 

There's a prolific prank circle where I work. A partial list:

 

1) Stealing a guy's keys every day and moving his car, concealing air fresheners, and ultimately (washable) painting it up with "SAUSAGE KING OF COLUMBUS."

 

2) Filling a guy's office to a depth of 6 feet with balloons.

 

3) Shrink-wrapping every object in a guy's cube while he was away on his honeymoon.

 

4) Decorating a guy's cube like a teenage girl's room, complete with pink wallpaper, glitter, and a blinking neon "Princess" lamp.

 

There were others, but I was involved and have yet to be exposed. Eyes are everywhere. Everywhere...

 

There's a prolific prank circle where I work. A partial list:

 

1) Stealing a guy's keys every day and moving his car, concealing air fresheners, and ultimately (washable) painting it up with "SAUSAGE KING OF COLUMBUS."

 

2) Filling a guy's office to a depth of 6 feet with balloons.

3) Shrink-wrapping every object in a guy's cube while he was away on his honeymoon.

 

4) Decorating a guy's cube like a teenage girl's room, complete with pink wallpaper, glitter, and a blinking neon "Princess" lamp.

 

There were others, but I was involved and have yet to be exposed. Eyes are everywhere. Everywhere...

 

 

We've done 2, 3 & 4.  For No. 4, instead of  "teenage girls" we did the "my little pony" and "american girl" motiff's!  LOL

Let's see....

 

I've dumped 10 lbs of ketchup on a guy's car, under the sweltering sun, and made sure to get it down into the air vents.  Everytime he turned his A/C on, the wonderful smell of ketchup wafted through.

 

Haha.  Same guy.  We had him drive out to the middle of nowhere, telling him to meet us a party.  We had him park at the end of a long driveway, walk to the house.  About 10 other guys were poised in the bushes and jumped out, surrounding him and lighting him up with paintballs.  We chased him back to the car and continued to shoot at him and the car until he took off.

 

We also stole this guy's Christmas decorations and left empty beer kegs in his front yard.

 

Man, now that I think about it, we were pretty harsh on this kid.  :(

There's a fine line between "prank" and "terrorize."

One time i peed in the fridge.

 

oh, wait...that wasn't a prank...i was just really drunk.

There's a fine line between "prank" and "terrorize."

 

To put it into perspective, he was a giant turd of a person.  I don't know if that changes anything, but there you go.

I like simple computer pranks.  My personal favorite is to a screenshot of the desktop and set it as the new background image, then hide the taskbar and delete all the shortcuts.  Of course you can still work by hitting the Windows key and bringing up the start menu, but it annoys the hell out of people when they can't click on anything.  I stumped a coworker, plus the IT guy for a good 30 minutes with this one. 

The neighbor......tell me more about them.

 

Middle-aged guy.  Jewish.  Salesman.

 

He does have a couple of classics - 1970 GTO convertible and 1964 Catalina 2x2 - that he loves more than life itself.... but involving his "babies" in this feud would just be cruel and, given his age, I have to be careful not to send him to the ER with heart palpatations.

 

There's a prolific prank circle where I work. A partial list:

 

1) Stealing a guy's keys every day and moving his car, concealing air fresheners, and ultimately (washable) painting it up with "SAUSAGE KING OF COLUMBUS."

 

2) Filling a guy's office to a depth of 6 feet with balloons.

 

These two reminded me of a couple subtle and simple pranks I had forgotten about.  One would be going to your co-workers car and turning everything on full blast - heat, radio, wipers, etc.  Or simply taking time out of one day per week to stand his/her wipers up.... they never notice until they are pulling out of their parking spot.  I was notarious for that back in my college days.

 

The other would be to get a sh!t load of red fruit punch or grape juice and use it to fill little cups which are then placed side by side all over the carpet of his/her office.  Time consuming though.... both the set up and him/her trying to get access back to the desk.

I am not a fan of pranks. I don't want any played on me and thus don't play them on anyone.

 

When I was in high school, one of my best friends came up behind me and pushed my face into the drinking fountain while I was taking a drink.  I didn't know it was her, and we had a lot of malicious a**holes in my school so without looking up to see who it was, I just swung around and punched the person who did it, ended up giving my friend a pretty nasty bruise and making her afraid of me for quite awhile, completely unintentionally.  This is what happens when pranks go wrong.  I just don't think it's funny to be made a fool of, and so I don't do it to others.  I mean, poking fun at a celebrity when I'm reading TMZ is one thing, but anything that's the social equivalent of watching someone wipe out on a banana peel is just not funny to me, it's mean, and entices trouble happening back to you.  JMO.

I am not a fan of pranks. I don't want any played on me and thus don't play them on anyone.

 

When I was in high school, one of my best friends came up behind me and pushed my face into the drinking fountain while I was taking a drink.  I didn't know it was her, and we had a lot of malicious a**holes in my school so without looking up to see who it was, I just swung around and punched the person who did it, ended up giving my friend a pretty nasty bruise and making her afraid of me for quite awhile, completely unintentionally.  This is what happens when pranks go wrong.  I just don't think it's funny to be made a fool of, and so I don't do it to others.  I mean, poking fun at a celebrity when I'm reading TMZ is one thing, but anything that's the social equivalent of watching someone wipe out on a banana peel is just not funny to me, it's mean, and entices trouble happening back to you.  JMO.

:)

I still have a chip tooth from when I was a kid and went to drink from the fountain at the park. My friend also pushed my face into the fountain to get it wet and I hit my mouth & tooth on the metal and well...

I forgave her but my mom was not happy about it for years. This happened sometime in the 60's. Ages ago!

My friend and I were sophomores, when another friend was a freshman.  We stood outside his locker, making note of the combination.  He had a girl for a locker partner, something unheard of!  Each day we terrorised their locker, leaving this poor girl in tears.  Hidden bananas which they wouldn't find until they smelled them, things in her snow boots, newspapers crumpled up, things falling out when the door was opened.  You name it, we did it!

 

She managed to get me back.

 

She's wife #2.....

My friend and I were sophomores, when another friend was a freshman. We stood outside his locker, making note of the combination. He had a girl for a locker partner, something unheard of! Each day we terrorised their locker, leaving this poor girl in tears. Hidden bananas which they wouldn't find until they smelled them, things in her snow boots, newspapers crumpled up, things falling out when the door was opened. You name it, we did it!

 

She managed to get me back.

 

She's wife #2.....

 

Didn't you grow up in Cleveland? Where did you go to school?

North Royalton

My wife pulled a subtle, yet successful prank on me a few years ago. We were living in Nashville (thank god we got out) and we subscribed to the local paper. While many people complain about the PD in Cleveland, they don't really know how good they have it. In comparison, the Tennessean is pathetic. I constantly complained about the quality, quantity and depth of reporting to her. One Sunday morning, I went out to get the newspaper, looked for the sports, and discovered that it was missing. Instead, there was a single sheet insert that read "We apologize. Due to a shortage of paper, we are unable to print Sunday's sports section."  Knowing the Tennessean, I fell hook, line and sinker. My wife had gotten up early and replaced the sports with a sheet of paper that she had printed out from the computer. She knew that the paper was crap that I would easily fall for the prank.

I can't resist...

 

A few of us used to play music at a friend's house in high school.  One of the guys was playing drums in the basement and left his car keys upstairs.  We wanted a little peace and quiet and he refused to stop playing, so we decided we would move his car a few blocks around the corner for the heck of it.

 

When he came upstairs, we told him that his car was missing.  He started freaking out that it was stolen, went outside, and started calling the police.  We told him that it's probably around someplace, and that we should check around the corner.  He kept asking why it would be around the corner, and it took a couple times of us saying this before he got the point that we moved it.  He got a little upset and chased us a quarter of a mile down the street. 

When I fix my wife a bowl of cereal I put a fork in it.

 

When me and my brother were kids, my Mom would leave us in the car to run inside real quick (it wasn't illegal or dangerous back in the day).  We would turn on EVERYTHING.  Radio, wipers, etc.  Would scare her good when she put the keys back in and turned the car on.

 

If someone leaves Ff or IE open on their PC, hit Ctrl+N as many times as you can.

• Post-It note on the bottom of the optical mouse is always good for a chuckle.
  
• The screen shot of the desk top works well too.
  
• When I was in the Army I once got someone to call KFC and ask for a General Sanders about his recent promotion from Colonel.
  
• Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow
  

Plus a handful of others that would take a while to describe.

Years ago at work I noticed the writer across the hall from me was a hunt-n-peck typist. One morning before he showed up to work I popped the keys off his keyboard (you could do that on the old IBM keyboards) and replaced them in scrambled order, save for those letters necessary to spell "I'M A BIG LOSER" across the center row. Along with a couple of co-workers, I watched around the corner as he sat down to the computer and began typing with mild difficulty. After a few seconds he looked up, saw gibberish on the screen, and looked down at the keyboard. He typed some more, and hesitated before looking up. He rubbed his eyes and looked down at his keyboard hard. He finally registered the message on the center row just as we were about to pee our pants.

Years ago at work I noticed the writer across the hall from me was a hunt-n-peck typist. One morning before he showed up to work I popped the keys off his keyboard (you could do that on the old IBM keyboards) and replaced them in scrambled order, save for those letters necessary to spell "I'M A BIG LOSER" across the center row. Along with a couple of co-workers, I watched around the corner as he sat down to the computer and began typing with mild difficulty. After a few seconds he looked up, saw gibberish on the screen, and looked down at the screen. He typed some more, and hesitated before looked up. He rubbed his eyes and looked down at his keyboard hard. He finally registered the message on the center row just as we were about to pee our pants.

 

Not a prank, but that story reminded me of an anecdote from a place where I used to work. I worked in a magnet-wire mill where there were numerous colorful characters among the long-time employees, both in the factory and in the office. Perhaps the eye-watering, nose-burning concentration of organic solvent vapors that permeated the building contributed to that.

 

One of the clerks was a spinster who always groomed and dressed herself impeccably but in the fashion of the 1940s. She was of severely isolated demeanor and austere bearing and conduct, and lived with an alternative perception of her surroundings. There were many curious tales, all true, about Betty. I happened to witness this occurrence.

 

This was before desktop computers, when office machines consisted of typewriters and large, heavy, noisy, slow Friden mechanical calculators capable of automatic division. Only the high-muckety-mucks' admin assitants had electric typewriters; all lower-ranking clerks had Royal manuals. All that stuff was used heavily, and more prone to breakdown than today's computers are. Our wire mill was part of a much larger complex that built motors and transformers, and there were three full-time technicians on site to keep all the office machines working. All three were well-acquainted with Betty.

 

One day she put in a problem call for her manual typewriter. She claimed that every time she struck an "E" it types an "A." The tech went through the motions of inspecting, poking, prodding, cleaning, and lubricating, tested it, and pronounced it fixed. About half an hour later, she called him back, saying, "It's doing the same thing again." Again he went through the motions, and said, "Well, Betty, I can't find a problem. What do you think is wrong with it?" Her response, without hesitation and in all seriousness: "Why, it's quite obvious; it's possessed."

 

The tech never missed a beat: "Betty, that's beyond what I've been trained to deal with. All I can do is take it back to the shop and give you a different one." That's what he did, and Betty had no problems with the replacement typewriter.

 

Oh. And a missed opportunity; when I worked in tech support on PCs, we moved a large data-entry office where about three fourths of the employees were women, and reinstalled about 150 desktop systems. As we were wrapping up, I found a key cap on the floor. It was the one with the "." character. I thought about holding it up and calling out, "Is anyone missing a period?" My boss didn't think it would be a good idea.

"He does have a couple of classics - 1970 GTO convertible and 1964 Catalina 2x2 - that he loves more than life itself.... but involving his "babies" in this feud would just be cruel and, given his age, I have to be careful not to send him to the ER with heart palpatations."

 

There's another reason not to mess with those cars.  He's probably involved in some of the local Pontiac clubs.  Those guys are very loyal and more than a few of them are mechanical genii

 

Back in college I leaned a trashcan full of water on my friend's dorm room door one time.  But he was hungover from the previous night and really didn't care, so it wasn't much of a prank.

Thanks for the great stories, Rob.

 

The talk of college pranks makes me think of 2 I heard about back then. (I was never a prankster, and was only a victim once)

 

- Living in a dorm built in the mid 50's, we still had communal restrooms.  The sinks were all in the same room, and had handheld sprayers.  Well, someone had used a rubber band to turn on the sprayer, and aimed it in the general direction of a person's crotch.  My friend went in, turned on the water, and got sprayed perfectly so that he appeared to have wet himself.  He was so impressed with the ingenuity of the prank that he wore his wet pants anyway.

 

- I don't know anyone who was a victim of this one.  It seems a little over-the-top to me.  But anyway, fill a Styrofoam plate with urine.  Freeze it.  Separate the frozen urine from the plate, and slide this frozen urine disk under someones door late at night.  By the time they wake up, the victim will find a puddle.  If they were drinking heavily the night before, they might think it's theirs.

 

I wouldn't suggest either of these for the OP.

- I don't know anyone who was a victim of this one. It seems a little over-the-top to me. But anyway, fill a Styrofoam plate with urine. Freeze it. Separate the frozen urine from the plate, and slide this frozen urine disk under someones door late at night. By the time they wake up, the victim will find a puddle. If they were drinking heavily the night before, they might think it's theirs.

 

That's very clever and gross at the same time.  Just imagine the confusion and smell the next morning. 

 

I've heard of people really going all out on pranks at some colleges.  I can't recall anything going on beyond trash cans of water, or maybe a soft serve ice cream cone from the cafeteria dropped between the stairs on freshman.

In college we had community bathrooms...i was in a stall one day when a buddy came in and threw something over the door at me.  So, i went back to my room with a wad of toilet paper...wiped peanut butter on it and went to his room.  He was sitting in there playing video games and freaked out when i tossed the TP/PB combo at him.