Pranks....

**Mke** · March 13th, 2009, 09:41 AM

I was just curious if fellow locators have ever played any praks on you? or Visa Versa?

Example: Back in my one-call days, we had to mark Tele and CATV, but the Electrical was marked by the Utility. Since we were always showing up to the same site about the same time we got to know the fellow locators pretty well. To a point where, if they ever found our vehicle unmanned or equipment unmanned they would take liberty with our equipment. I think it started Writing comments in the dust and dirt on the vehicle... and I even had to drive around with Red tires for about a week till there was enough comments I scrubbed off the paint.

I even had a vehicle moved on me. any stories from you guys?

mke

**Globalview** · March 13th, 2009, 11:27 AM

I like the Rainbow

sticker prank...put the sticker on front of the truck
due to more time for the sticker to ride...call your fellow locator after a couple
days and call them and congrat their new

life style!

**TheCableVine** · March 13th, 2009, 12:06 PM

Turn the heater on high in the summer. it takes a while for the person to figure out why it is so freakin hot in the truck.

**TBONE** · March 13th, 2009, 01:31 PM

Change the caps on the paint cans so they think that they have a certain color but actually have another

**RD_Wrangler** · March 13th, 2009, 01:37 PM

I once made the mistake of leaving my truck parked in my driveway with the canopy on one side unlocked. The on-call locator (also one of my best friends) just happened to have a ticket in my neighborhood that morning at 2:00am, and decided to see if he could mess with me. Apparently my dog decided since she KNEW this person, it was ok for him to be there, because I heard not a peep from her.

Upon, discovering my canopy unlocked, my "friend" decided to "locate" my front yard. When I walked out the next morning I discovered my yard cross-hatched in 2 ft squares of alternating red, yellow, orange, and white. The ENTIRE 1/2 acre lawn.

Not only was this in October, meaning that the paint was going to be visible for quite awhile since the grass had stopped growing, I then had to explain to the Ops Coordinator why I needed to re-stock on paint after I had just done so the day before.

Gotta love them pals!!!

**TBONE** · March 13th, 2009, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by RD_Wrangler

I once made the mistake of leaving my truck parked in my driveway with the canopy on one side unlocked. The on-call locator (also one of my best friends) just happened to have a ticket in my neighborhood that morning at 2:00am, and decided to see if he could mess with me. Apparently my dog decided since she KNEW this person, it was ok for him to be there, because I heard not a peep from her.

Upon, discovering my canopy unlocked, my "friend" decided to "locate" my front yard. When I walked out the next morning I discovered my yard cross-hatched in 2 ft squares of alternating red, yellow, orange, and white. The ENTIRE 1/2 acre lawn.

Not only was this in October, meaning that the paint was going to be visible for quite awhile since the grass had stopped growing, I then had to explain to the Ops Coordinator why I needed to re-stock on paint after I had just done so the day before.

Gotta love them pals!!!

That just isn't right

**chip** · March 13th, 2009, 08:41 PM

Found a friends truck unmanned i unlocked it and filled it up with packing peanuts (long locate and ups store next door), changed the paint tops and painted white stripes on his tires.

**sprayandpray** · March 13th, 2009, 11:18 PM

At a meet site one of my buddies put a long - 18" - tie wrap around the Sup's driveshaft. It took him about 4 stops to finally see the wrap. I took another guys front hubcaps off and put a couple of nuts in each one. He sd it took him nearly a week to find them

**Bubba** · March 13th, 2009, 11:24 PM

Have pulled alot of pranks on my fellow locators but I think one of the best was what I pulled on my mother while I was in high school....hope this doesn't get too long.........

My father was a mechanical engineer for 3M and would seal our windows each winter with the 3M window treatment to prevent cold air from coming into the house. Well........April Fools Day hit and my devious mind went to work on how I could get my parents. I went into my fathers workshop and looked around and eventually saw the window treatment. The light bulb went off in my head and I immediately thought "TOILET TREATMENT". I adhered the window treatment to my parents toilet, hit it with the blow dryer and you couldn't even tell it was there once the job was done. My mother came home from work and eventually hit the toilet. All I heard was screams from her bathroom! Worked as I had planned with piss running all over the place, what I didn't plan on was her chasing me around the house with a chainsaw and a log chain to whup my ass!

**Goldenboy** · March 14th, 2009, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by TBONE

Change the caps on the paint cans so they think that they have a certain color but actually have another

This is my all time favorite and least favorite at the same time. I'll keep 10 cases of paint in the back of my truck with the top of the boxes cut open. If someone pulls this trick on me I can find screwed up cans for weeks.

**beyond help** · March 14th, 2009, 09:32 AM

Great one Bubba!

I was able to get ahold of all the spare keys (we had a meeting at the office) and moved everyones trucks around the other side of the building. A half hour meeting turned into a 90 minute bitchfest.

**noOT4me** · March 14th, 2009, 10:35 AM

I used to carry a 5 ft section of 400 pr. Wait for a contractor to turn his back on his trench, stick the cable in the wall of the trench or behind the bucket of the backhoe, and sit back and watch the looks on everyone's faces.

**sprayandpray** · March 14th, 2009, 10:47 AM

This wasn't exactly a prank but J.T.(our old DM) was with the East Texas Supervisor riding around and spotted an SM&P truck parked at a convenience store out in the country. The truck was unlocked with the keys in the ignition so J.T. jumped in it and took off with the Supervisor following him. They didn't fire the Locator but I would have liked to seen his face when he walked out of the store.

**phoenix827** · March 21st, 2009, 06:25 AM

Keep em coming!! Getting some good ideas here! lol

**gwhitson71** · March 24th, 2009, 04:18 PM

Zip ties are a must have, they're so versatile and fun. I use tiny black one to zip tie the wiper blades so that they're just about 1/8" off the glass, and they'll stay there as long as they need to. Then when it rains, your buddy goes to turn on the wipers not seeing the zip ties. Zip tie a large heavy duty tie to the driveshaft, this happened to me. I drove around for a day listening to very subtle clicking noise. Finally went to a shop, sat 2hours before the mechanic could look at my truck on to discover that some jerk played a prank..lol. Axle grease on the back side of a door handle works good too. There or on the back side of the steering wheel.