Roger,
I agree with you. I wouldn't dream about something like that today....you got to realize this all took place along time ago...........back when I was still bullet proof. I think the old guy in the shop back then was in his 30's.

I know why most places have strict rules againt practical jokes, I understand the reasoning. There's a fine line between a harmless prank and something hurtful. A prank gets pulled on someone, then there is retaliation, back and forth it goes, escalating each time until its way out of hand and something bad happens. I've seen it happen. Now a days I get to play the role of advising against allowing any kind of horseplay in the workplace......I'm a safety guy, heck I was even a compliance officer at OSHA for a few years.

Bobby

 

I had a good one played on me when I was working in the oil fields in Alaska.
They bet me I couldn't take a machete (used to peel insulation off pipe)and swing it two handed over my head and hit a 6" area of a 2 x 4 six times in a row. They taped off the 6" section and handed me the machete. Simple.
Well then they blindfold me and every time I hit in the 6" area they would give me $5.00. But in the process of blindfolding you they take your hat off. Put the blind. And away you go ! Hacked my own hat into 3 pieces. They laid it on the 2x4 between the lines. Made just enough to buy a new hat.

 

I'm a big fan of the practical jokes that don't hurt or frighten anyone. Here are my two favorites:

1. I work in commercial real estate and a couple of years ago we had a wise-a$$ intern for the summer. We were working on selling a large office building and he was eager to help. So we told him we needed to find out the "net weight" of the building and sent him back to his desk. He spent half the day trying to figure it out, before he finally called his father (also in the real estate business) and had a good laugh about it.

2. You know how you can program your cell phone to have your name or other information always showing up on the main screen? Many phones call it the "banner." Well, we took the phone of another guy in the office and instead of his name we changed the banner to say "Low Battery." It took him a week of trying to charge up the battery before he figured it out. The whole department was hysterical, listening to him complain about his battery all week!

 

That one is great! I will have to try it out at work.

Ok I work construction and what I have done a few times is ask the HVAC guy if I can barrow a large ZIP TIE (they are about a 1/2" wide and very strong) then I take it out to were his truck is parked. I slide under the truck and zip it around his drive shaft. Then we wait around after work and watch him pull out. Normally they will get about 30-50' before pulling over and checking for flat tires and every thing under the sun. I will then pull out and stop by them and ask if they need help (I am the Car guy at work so I always get asked). I then slide under cut off the tie (if I like the guy) and hand it back to him. It always gets a good laugh from everyone around.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

 

While I was an apprentice,i worked on a job with a non-stop joker,the type who could dish it out but not take it.While on a remodel,he took from a supply closet between the men's/women's restrooms,thirty or so tampons and filled my toolbox.Deciding to end this thing once and for all,I went to the same closet,cut a mini-pad in half, and placed it between the ham and cheese of his sandwich.Of course I let the rest of the crew in on the joke.Man,when he bit into his lunch,and dragged THAT out with his teeth,A roar went up from the crew,and he wanted to fight.The nerve of an apprentice playing a joke on a journeyman.HA!,imagine a 25 year old worried about a nearly 60-year old.No more jokes ,though.Steve.

 

WE had a guy that would bring his lunch everyday that his mother made for him. Everyday he would take the lettuce out and complain about how much he hated lettuce on his sandwich. WE called his mother and told her to stop putting lettuce on his sandwichs because we were tired of hearing about it. Soon after he had to make his own lunch.

 

Place I worked at had revolving sandwich machine in the break room. This guy always brown bagged his lunch and put it on the fridge.
A few guys that took their brake before us bought a sandwich and held the door open while the other got his brown bag and put it in the machine.
He comes in for lunch.........no lunch bag.....what the hell. He searches for five minutes and gives up.
He thought it was thrown out or something.
He goes to the machines.... yells out SONS OF BITCHES!!!!!
Runs and gets the manager. The manager laughed to. It cost him $1.75 for his own lunch.
Those guys at that place were over the top. His lunch stayed in the car after that.

 

Hmm, there may have been a time back when I use to work in residential construction during my summers in college... that I may have accidentlly glued a coworkers lunch cooler to the floor using construction adhesive.. oops

 

LOL What are friends for?

I good buddy of mine and I used to play practical jokes back and forth on each other all the time. I had a 1967 Mustang with the optional window washer setup. There was a pedal attached to a black rubber bulb and switch combo that was to the left of the Hi Low beam switch. When you stepped down on the pedal it would squirt water on the windshield and activate the wipers for a few cycles. He ran a small vacuum hose from under the dash off the main washer line and tapped it to the underside of the steering column. The hose had a small brass bolt in the end with a number 60 hole drilled in it. Then he put honey along the top edges of the wiper blades and dropped a few blobs on the windshield right in the middle of the driver's side. So I come out to my car headed for a date that night and have this goo on the window so I hit the bulb a few times to wash the window and the wipers start up and smear all this other goo across the windshield. After I use the squirter a LOT to finally get the window clean and about 2 blocks from my girlfriends house I get this odd feeling, looked down and realized that every time I hit the bulb half the water is going in my lap.

Retaliation time… he has this Chevy Truck with electric door locks and windows. The door locks are the kinds that when locked the handle on the inside does not work to open the door. ;-) And the lil pins you pull to unlock the door have been replaced with the kind that have no top to get hold of.

So I take a little trip to radio shack, the auto parts store and dig up an old tape recorder and an hour of rigging and I have a small box attached to a small tape recorder. The box has a couple of timers in it with wires coming out that I used to bypass a couple of fuses in the fuse block as well.
So he gets in his truck and puts the key in the ignition and nothing happens but the doors lock and a voice comes over his sound system that says…

Good morning Mr. Felps… You have been chosen for a mission to recapture the lost ruby of Zigfree. In the seat next to you, please find an envelope of possible candidates for this mission. (I put random pictures in here of movie stars and such.) The recording goes on to describe the mission and then ends with should you decide to take this mission honk the horn. This truck will self-destruct in 10 seconds. 10… 9… 8… so at this point he is looking at the horn and trying to decide if he really wants to see what will happen. The windows won't work the doors are locked and the ignition is dead so he is trapped. The tape voice is obviously mine and I do giggle a few times. So the timer runs out and a small buzzer sounds as a very large solenoid energizes and pops a small hole in the bottom of a breeze can. You know the inch in diameter by about 7-inch long cans of car air freshener… It was Peach by the way, and did I mention that he hates peaches.

His answer was to fill the pockets of my favorite coat with grease.

I loved that coat so I wrapped two hose clamps around his drive line with small pieces of flat aluminum bar on the ends so the truck would literally howl at about 45 miles an hour.

So he mixed up some two-part epoxy and stuck a flat nosed shovel to the middle of the windshield on my 1969 F350. (Which I still have… minus the shovel)

So I took a 38-caliber powder hammer and Umm "nailed" his toolbox to the concrete floor of the shop we used.

LOL we went back and forth for years, which reminds me I think he got one up on me last time so I need to come up with something new. Keep um coming guys I need a few new ideas.

___________________________
My Grandpa told me once that you have to learn by the mistakes of others because you will Not live long enough to make the all yourself.