Do you/did you ever prank your co-workers?

[tac]

C'mon, be honest. And confess the how and when and maybe even where.

Inquisitive minds want to know.

We promise not to tell, okay?

I did, twice, and here's what happened on one of those occasions. If this post engenders any subsequent entries from you guys, I might tell you about the troop commander and his turret cupola malfunction...

As a lot of folks here know, I was a career Army person, with seventeen non-commissioned and almost another sixteen years commissioned service.

The first real 'prank' I was actually involved with in all that time took place in my second year, before I transferred into INT. Modern main battle tanks don't actually touch the ground, that is to say, no metal part of the track touches the hard-standing inside the storage and maintenance buildings. This is because modern tracks have rubber pads to serve a number of requirements, like being kind to driving on public roads, where our tanks do a lot of that kind of thing, transiting under their own power from barracks to range and so on. They are also a lot quieter than all-steel tracks, as used by the russians, for instance, who don't care either about noise or chewing up public roads. The other by-product of simply being there is that they effectively insulate the tank from the ground, electrically-speaking. So when working in them, a techie wears an earthing strop to ground himself to a safe point outside the vehicle as he tests a circuit by when probes and by cranking his 'megger', an old-style mini-generator that induces electrical liveliness into a circuit of one kind or another, enabling it to be tested and fixed - hopefully. After a couple of hours cranking and probing under the 'hood' of a Chieftain MBT, you can build up a considerable amount of personal static electricity. However much that might be, you'd never know, as you are earthed via your ground strop. That is to say, IF it is actually connected to ground....

Cpl Smith was not a popular man, wont to dishing out crappy fix-it rosters to folks who had annoyed him. We usually all got on with the serious business of keeping the Queen's favourite tanks in good order, but instead of being rewarding, he seemed determined to make it a real chore.

So one day, while he was checking out the inner workings of the squadron commander's own tank, from a position buried deep in the bowels of the turret, we disconnected his earthing strop...

He must have looked at his watch and decided to take a break, and advising his co-worker [two at a time in a tank], he eased himself out of the turret onto the rear deck, from which it was his pleasure to descend via a near-balletic leap to the floor of the shed. We watched as he performed this expected action, which was, on this occasion, enhanced quite a bit by what can only be described as a human 'son et lumiére'. A couple of sparks, easily a a foot and a half long and powerful enough to raise every hair on his head vertically, issued with a loud CRACK from the soles of his boots while he was in the air, 'twixt engine deck and floor, and he collapsed into an almost pretzel-like and twitching heap.

We almost collectively pee'd ourselves watching this, until it got time to get serious and rush, albeit slowly, to help him up. Remotely, of course, he was still as lively as one of Volta's famous frogs, and could well have lit up a small bulb if it had been stuck in his mouth...all our help was therefore delivered remotely, using insulated items like the shed furnace coke shovel and trolley-jack handles until he was deemed to be as electrically inert as the rest of the human race, and less like 'Elektro, King of Lightning'.

Of course, nobody could be blamed for the detachment of an earthing clip - a large, if feeble crocodile clip device that could easily slip off if not secured by the hefty nut, which in this case, had not, it seemed, been threaded on.

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[Provincial]

We had an independent mechanic that we often hired to do repairs that were more complicated than our own staff could handle. Deano was a nice fellow who had a 2-ton truck outfitted with a crane and a service body packed with tools and supplies. One day he was working on our D-8 Cat bulldozer, and the job required using his oxy-acetylene torch. He took off his "rosebud" multi-flame heating tip and replaced it with a smaller, single tip. After he had finished, packed up, and left, we found the heating tip lying on the track of the -8. Sensing an opportunity, we asked around for a junk tip, and a friend came up with a worn-out one that took quite a bit of polishing to match the appearance of Deano's tip. (Deano kept his tools in very nice condition) After matching the appearance, we then had to run over the tip several times with the -8 to get the proper level of damage.

The next time Deano came to our rescue, we notified him that he had apparently left his rosebud on the track, and didn't find it until it had been run over. Accepting the proffered destroyed tip, he seemed quite skeptical, and went to his truck and opened the compartment door where he had a rack holding all his tips. The hole for the rosebud was empty, and you could see his shoulders slump.

We laughed, and offered him his original, unscathed tip. He took it in good grace, but vowed to get even with a prank of his own.

 

[Provincial]

Not a prank, but a little fun with a co-worker:

After spending several years flying DC-3's in Alaska, I got a job with an air cargo outfit in the State of Washington flying DC-3's so I could be closer to my home in Oregon. Soon after I signed on, they sent me to Alaska to fly Sockeye Salmon off a beach in Bristol Bay. We worked based on the tide tables, because the beach was flooded at high tide. The airplane was based in Kenai, a little south of Anchorage, and we delivered to an isolated ramp well over a mile from any facilities at Anchorage International Airport. One night I had difficulty getting the left engine starter to work. After a number of attempts, it finally spun over, and we had the mechanic replace the starter when we got to Kenai. My copilot, who was a rated Airframe and Powerplant mechanic (the company used them as much as mechanics as pilots) expressed concern that if the starter had failed on the beach, we could not escape the incoming tide and the airplane would have been lost. I assured him that if the starter failed, I would start the 14-cylinder, 1,200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney radial engine by pulling the 11-1/2 foot diameter propeller through by hand. He dismissed that as impossible.

The next evening we picked up fish on the beach and got to Anchorage about 2 AM. As the truck's taillights passed through the perimeter fence gate about a ½ mile away, the left starter (the NEW ONE!) refused to turn, no matter what we tried. My copilot started complaining about having to spend the night in the airplane waiting for rescue.

I told him that he would have to run the controls in the cockpit while I turned the propeller by hand. His response was "If you get that engine started by propping it, I'll wear a dress and whistle Dixie." I accepted his challenge, and briefed him on what to do and got him set up in the left (Captain's) seat so he could see me and hear my commands.

With all the switches off, I pulled the propeller through a few blades to clear everything out. Then had him run the fuel pumps and use the primer system to get some fuel in the cylinders as I continued to pull on the blades. Satisfied that the cylinders were primed, I had him turn the magneto switches on, and when I started to move the propeller blade again, to switch on the "shower of sparks" booster magneto system. The propeller blade moved about a foot before it accelerated out of my hands and the engine came to life.

I walked around the prop arc, collected the wheel chocks, climbed in the cargo door and stowed the boarding ladder and chocks. I locked the cargo door and hiked up the inclined cabin floor to the cockpit. My copilot was still sitting in the left seat, with his shoulders slumped. He knew he was going to have to pay off the bet!

Upon getting back to Kenai, I updated the mechanic (also an A&P mechanic, but a new hire who hadn't yet made copilot) on the starter issue, and also the bet. He replaced the starter again, and we never had another problem. A day later, the mechanic reported that a lady friend he had met owned a bridal shop and was eager to provide a wedding dress and set up a time in the local bar so we could all hear "Dixie."

All this fell apart when the Company called my copilot back to Seattle to work another route and sent a replacement. By the time we got back from Alaska, he had jumped ship and gone to work for the United Express commuter airline based in Kennewick, Washington.

A year later, I had moved up to Convair 440's flying UPS packages between Portland, Oregon and Spokane, Washington for the same outfit. My copilot had been the mechanic in Alaska, and moved up! One night we had to ride United Express from Portland to Spokane to pick up another Convair, and the captain on the flight happened to be one of our friends. We told him about the bet, and he swore to collect on it. Sure enough, about a month later my former copilot was greeted when he showed up for work one day by a group of pilots with a dress. He did wear it and whistle "Dixie."

My avatar is one of the DC-3's I flew off that beach, among other places.

 

[chukar]

I regularly mind "prank" my co-workers with my generally unpleasant demeanor, which frightens them and amuses me. It controls the herd.. There are some that have learned the game or have become accepted. They are few. It is a small, but wonderful power when you can scrunch your eyebrows and people are concerned.

 

[boattail]

Where I work they were into huge pranks. It got so out of hand that they had to call a cease fire. Most pranks centered around our lockers and what you could do to them. Rotten cheese in the bottom, glueing locks shut, popping doors off and placing full plates of food inside over a weekend, stuffing shredded paper in every place it could be stuffed.......the best one though was Guy A kept messing with guy B's boots in his locker. So guy B steals guy A's boots and puts them in his own locker with the laces hanging out slightly. Buy A sees the laces hanging out and pulls them out and cuts them off.......not knowing they were his own boots.

I'm not into those kind of pranks and everyone knew not to mess with my stuff. I was in a volunteer fire Department and the guys messed with my pickup during our annual fundraiser drive and I got pissed at them as they actually scratched my mirror putting stickers on the mirror. So, the next year I brought my 150 pound Bernese Mountain dog to guard my pickup. When we left the fire house to head out for the day there was a red ribbon tied to a car then over to the next pickup and it continued around the parking lot tied to all of the vehicles on my team. The other end of the ribbon was tied to my dogs collar....where he wore it proudly thinking he was a good boy. I did laugh at that one.

 

[Hawaiian]

April Fools Day.
My friend Bert always backed into his parking space. I tied a blow up doll dressed in red and black lace bra and panties to the back of his car. Hung a sign that said "Honk if you're Horny."
The boss then gave him a sealed envelope and asked him to deliver it to a client, Honolulu Shipyard, also a mutual friend.
Bert drove through town to the shipyard and could not understand why everyone was honking their horns, pulling up along upside him and laughing hysterically at him. Bert is a short Japanese guy with coke bottle glasses.
When he got out of his car at the shipyard, he saw the doll and sign. He ripped it off his car tucked it under his arm and stormed off to the shipyard bosses office. Well now all the shipyard workers see him with his doll and start whistling and hooting which made him even more 'ticked' off.
I left the office for the day before he returned.

 

[slimmer13]

Not me, but a guy at work had about 100 "I heart penis" bumper stickers made up. The game is to see how long a guy drives around with it on his vehicle without noticing.

 

[kmk1012]

I found a naked dead body several years ago out in a remote area that we maintain at work. We drive bye every day, I really want to find a mannequin and play a joke on my co-worker. He'd really freak out for sure.

 

[tac]

I was not personally involved on this prank, but I saw it happen, and approved of it.

First of all, I want you to look at this vertical drawing of a Chieftain Main Battle Tank, the iron fist of the British Army from 1965 to around 1990. It was the most heavily-armoured tank of its day, and had the same 120mm rifled gun that is still, for the moment, fitted to Challenger 2. And BTW, a Challenger 1, the personal vehicle of Brigadier Cordingley in Gulf War 1, achieved the longest every tank-v-tank shot in history.



In addition to the PITA Cpl Smith, or ol' Sparky as he became known after his electrifying exploits, we were blessed with a newly-hatched lieutenant, whom I will call Tristram Hardeleigh-Worthitte. Coming from a long line of military ancestors, going back to Waterloo, and I don't mean the railway station, you might have thought that he would have been deeply aware of the role of any Second Lieutenant in an armoured regiment - to look good, listen to everything he's told, and to unfailingly learn from his betters, ie. Sergeant Dudley Brown. Sergeant Brown was a diamond in every respect - we all loved him. He was a skilled practitioner of armoured fieldcraft, happily heading up the troop that had beaten all-comers in the NATO competitions for gunnery, with a crew who though the sun shone out of ........ you get it, I'm sure.

Until the arrival of 2md Lt H-W, who took over the smartest tank on the line - of which Sergeant Brown was hitherto the commander. He was relegated, instead, to a clapped-out smoking monster, and, with the help of the skilled VMs [vehicle mechanics] and even-more skilled CE techs [control equipment, IOW, anything that operated by motor, servo, relay, electricity or hydraulically] raised it to the equal of his erstwhile charge.

This upset 2nd Lt H-W, who had also taken an instant hate to Sgt Brown, who was only better-looking that he was, but was close to the CO, too, by virtue of his continuing success in all things tankery. He determined to make his life a misery, and did, with many unnecessary calls on his spare time, away from his wife and two kids, carrying out needless vehicle checks - all of which we, as the regiment techies - got to do as the last posts in the fence, so to speak.

The upshot was an unhappy troop Sergeant - that's bad enough - but also twelve unhappy techies - a LOT more badder in the overall scheme of things.

Something had to be done.

We were on a three-day exercise with live firing at Lulworth ranges in Dorset, and we were all as busy as one-armed paper-hangers, when Sgt Brown came over to us techies and mentioned that the Boss's cupola traversing gear was playing up, wink-wink.... we got his drift pretty sharply, especially as free bacon sammidges all round were offered as inducement. Oddly enough, to a man we refused this bribe kind offer, as we were as willing as anybody to see the loathsome 2nd Lt H-W get some kind of come-uppance.

And what a come-uppance it was, my friends.

Now is the time to carefully study the drawing I showed you above. You'll see that the commander's cupola is situated on the right-hand side of the turret - the plain circular feature is the lid - the projections you can see are the optics, through which the T/C - tank commander - views the outside world when the tank is closed up.

At his feet is the gunner, whom he can kick, should the mood take him to do so. 2nd Lt H-W was a frequent kicker, another black mark against him.

This being a modern tank, equipped with a fully-stabilised gun, no matter where the gun points as the tank moves across the battlefield, with the gunner waving it around like a conductor's baton, it will faithfully follow the gun. Until the T/C selects the option, that is. At the flick of a switch, the cupola becomes independent of the turret, so that the T/C can be looking in another direction, perhaps selecting another target for the gunner, who can then match the two sights and make the kill.

Imagine then, what would happen, if instead of matching the rotation of the turret in the stabilised setting, some kind of gremlin was introduced into the circuitry that made it actually lag behind the turret - not by much, say a second or so........

On a pretext of carrying out a bit of twiddling to the rangefinder couplings - a set of complex electronic gizmos that ensured that all motions matched - a tiny tweak was introduced into the circuitry.

The next part of the exercise was the three-hour advance and battle run with lots of ammunition being sent downrange, most often with commendable accuracy. However, it is VERY hard to concentrate on the task at hand if you are a second behind the drag curve in a pitching, bouncing 65-ton barge belting across the hillocky countryside. Imagine being on one of those fairground rides that looks like a rotating tea-cup, going up and down and round and round while it rotates in what seems to be ten different directions.

Add a gasmask, 40C heat, incredible noise and smell, from the tank and the crew, plus the radio on four different frequencies, trying to manage your tank and five others...without losing your guts in the process...

2nd Lt Hardeleigh-Worthitte did just that.

 

[made in china]

Yup.

Glove bombs

Dry ice bombs

Rewire a project someone is working on

Pull all the fuses from their car

Move their car with the forklift

As time goes by, I'm finding people's sense of humor to be generally lacking these days.

 

[monkeybutler]

I was at a chicken wings place and they handed me some moist towlettes. I made a comment jokingly. "Awesome, I love moist towelettes." The guy came back and gave me a couple dozen more. (I ended up buying even more to support the ongoing effort)

One day I left one on my co-worker's keyboard. A couple days later I left another. that continued for a couple weeks. The next week I had to travel, so I had another coworker leave towelettes on his keyboard or desk. This was important because it would distance me from suspicion.

This whole pattern went on for several more weeks. (I used to travel a lot for work.)

The guy who I was doing this to was very orderly - think German engineer - so this became a bit distressing to him.

One morning over group coffee he mentioned that he kept finding towelettes and was wondering if someone thought he had a personal hygeine problem. At which point I burst out laughing.

 

[BBQ Guy]

I used to fill in for my old boss when he was out of town.
His computer was where i had to log in to take care of sales orders because I didn't have my own computer and desk yet.

I got into his settings and personalized his background and screen saver with the following picture.




He wasn't pleased with my choice of pictures.

 

[tac]

I used to fill in for my old boss when he was out of town.
His computer was where i had to log in to take care of sales orders because I didn't have my own computer and desk yet.

I got into his setting and personalized his background and screen saver with the following picture.

View attachment 1242543


He wasn't pleased with my choice of pictures.

What his problem? At least it's VERY patriotic, isn't it?

 

[RustyNail]

I have a friend who works for the state as a tax auditor on properties. His friend was going through a hard time financially and no one knew it. He kept sending foreclosure notices to his friend's house and past due property tax notices. Each time the guy would call in and get my friend on the phone who would tell him that everything is fine…It drove his friend insane and finally my friend told him the truth. They hardly talk anymore. . Talk about risk, not sure that's even legal lol

 

[Alexx1401]

I used to fill in for my old boss when he was out of town.
His computer was where i had to log in to take care of sales orders because I didn't have my own computer and desk yet.

I got into his setting and personalized his background and screen saver with the following picture.

View attachment 1242543


He wasn't pleased with my choice of pictures.

Years ago they set all our terminals up to time out
Before that it was GREAT fun finding one that a co worker had forgotten to log out on. Change their wallpaper to something wild. Then watch the next time they logged in

 

[BBQ Guy]

What his problem? At least it's VERY patriotic, isn't it?

Supposedly he had a client in his office when he opened it up for the first time he opened his computer. I fell off the couch laughing when he told me that. He was disturbed even further with that part.
We used to joke around with each other, so i didnt think anything of it.