what was your worst work prank?

[Billy Jack]

How do they (the troops) use it to find trip-wires?

I can see why your into tree work. That looks like a cubic hell!

I am not former military so thank you for your service (and supporting the boys cleaning up that S-hole).

If you spray a strand of Silly String across a room, it'll "hang up" on anything that it lands on. Imagine running a piece of fishing line pulled tight across a room about 18" off the floor. If you spray a strand of silly string across it, the strand will droop off the floor, indicating something is there.

I hate using the photo as an example, but see where it droops over that cable? Just imagine a dark room with an almost invisible trip wire. The silly string will make it obvious.

BTW - my office is now about four times the size of that mini-cube. Still hell though!

 

[B-Edwards]

I can see this thread getting someone put in jail. I am going to be smart and not tell some of the things Ive done or seen. I worked with some crazies. I figured out pretty quick some guys will never let you one up them no matter what the prank is. I love the one following the guy setting the alarm off!!!!!!

 

[beastmaster]

Had pictures of a prank pulled on me. I posted it in ,"pictures", but listening to sage advice, remove it. Some things are better kept to one self.(I guess)

 

[gwiley]

Swapped my bosses desk chair for a toilet. I got a few team mates to chip in $5 and bought a cracked bowl and a new tank - even had a $10 padded toilet seat!

When my boss came in to work he calmly took his jacket off, hung it over the tank and sat down and got to work.

I went in later that day to talk about some work and right in the middle of me explaining an idea he reaches around and flushes the toilet "Does that help you understand what I think of your idea?"

We had a lot of fun with that prank and the only injury was a coworker grabbing the broken side of the bowl with her hand.

 

[Mass tree guy]

Done some great ones

guy cuts large hole in a cardboard box puts his johnson in the cardboard box with the top covered..
he made like there was something real heavy in the box, runs over to the new guy, yells at him to take the part out of the box...new guy opens the box only to see its not a car part in the box...

saw this a few weeks ago. guy had his lunch by a tree this other climber was pruning....the climber crashes dudes lunch destroys his phone lunch cooler..

Climber says "it was in the danger zone, your fault"

dude was pissed....went into the truck grabbed the climbers lunch box and threw it through the chipper....then the groundie yells "IT WAS IN THE DANGER ZONE"

lol that was a good one..

one year this old timer guy 25+ years at the company ipm climber bucket everything guy..also very miserable and loved to yell...well one day he was #####ing about how everyone was keeping their rigs in front of the fill up..So the next day one of the reps stayed late and put every truck chipper chip-truck rep cars ditch witch bobcat and office chairs in front of the fill up...the old miserable guy was so floored with this he wasn't mad cause it was so funny

 

[tree md]

I'd have to say that if someone ever pulled the "Johnson in the box" trick on me it would definitely be in the danger zone of my handsaw...

Not so much pranks but I have worked with some funny characters over the years. I worked with one guy when I was young, older climber, in his 40's. He was well known around Atlanta where I worked and everyone liked him. When I worked with him he was still doing light climbing and bucket work. Mostly he was sent out with young climbers to teach. He had broke his back or neck one about 10 years previous and he couldn't really move his neck. So when he turned to look at something his whole body moved in that direction. He was very mild mannered and likable but he would totally blow his top when he had to drive the large trucks through the city. We all know it can be challenging to move through the city in large trucks, hauling chippers and whatnot. This guy would have me in stitches. He would loose his cool and say things like "don't these people work"!!!. What are they doing? Out joy riding in the middle of the day! He'd see a woman putting on her makeup and say "yes sweetheart, take your time, it's not like we have to be anywhere or anything"... LOL, he would carry on conversations with people as if they could hear what he was saying. He like to blow the horn and make chicks smear their lipstick or eyeliner when he caught them putting on their makeup. The dude was a scream to ride with!

The old guy who taught me how to do crane work was the same way. He'd cuss the whole way through the city in his crane truck. He called tires "tars". He looked at me one day and said "I'd of run over that guy but I'm afraid I'd of scratched my tars! LOL.

One service I worked for, we all had nexttel radio phones and we could hear all the radio traffic going on between the boss and the different crews. One day a guy backed over a Porche with a chip truck and that made for some interesting radio traffic. I thought the owner was going to have a coronary right on the radio. I'm sure every crew was in tears listing to the tongue lashing coming over the radio...

 

[EcoArboristBill]

The best pranks are always the ones pulled on the boss. The best one I've pulled started when the boss went to dump the truck. He left me in the last tree with a ground man to stage brush until he got back with the dump truck. We finished what we had to do and while we waited we dug under the pole that was now on the ground waiting to be picked up and put on the truck. So when the boss arrived back on the job site, me and my groundie both appeared to be pinned or smashed under the tree. HE FREAKED OUT, ran across the yard and was greeted by two laughing "corpses".

 

[tree md]

This one was pulled on me by my crew. Now let me preface this by saying that there is no drinking on any of my jobs. We may drink a little beer after work but no one drinks on the job.

However, We were working one day in July, a day when the temps were like 103 plus. In other words it was HOT! We usually bring a large cooler with us on days like that where we keep gatorade, water, melon and fruit. I noticed a gallon milk jug in the cooler and just figured it was one of the groundies water that he had brought that day. When I ran out of my own water I asked if I could have a drink of whoever's "water" was in the jug. I got an empathetical yes from my groundie. I took a drink and nearly died. It was moonshine. They had been laying for me all day just waiting for me to run out of water. I had noticed a lot of snickering going on but was too busy to really pay attention. I'll tell you, a big old slug of moonshine on a hundred plus day is no fun.

 

[BigE]

The little shiny things are 3V batteries mixed in with the sawdust. Can't vacuum them up due to fire hazard with the sawdust and batteries. Made for a fun cleanup.

 

[gwiley]

That office looks hateful....I wouldn't have the nerve to hit the boss that way.

 

[BigE]

Apparently the computer never worked after that... Ah well, such is life. He never complained once. Just stayed late and came in early to clean it up.

 

[Art Vandelay]

We played tip the Johnie on the spot over on the newbie. He climbed out looking like a smurf.

 

[pdqdl]

The little shiny things are 3V batteries mixed in with the sawdust. Can't vacuum them up due to fire hazard with the sawdust and batteries. Made for a fun cleanup.

Piece-o-cake! Air jet from air compressor; blow the sawdust out the door. Batteries get left behind.

 

[BigE]

Piece-o-cake! Air jet from air compressor; blow the sawdust out the door. Batteries get left behind.

View of "out the door". We added a foam "roof" and piled sawdust on that as well.

I brought in my magnetic sweep and that worked out pretty good. He took it so well I felt kind've bad about it. He never even tried to get revenge.

 

[Bowhunter01]

The salesman decided to come out and work with the crew one day, and got up in the bucket on a removal job. Started bombing brush as fast as he could go, and didn't give anyone time to clean it up. Wouldn't look at what was under him, just started bombing wood on top of the brush. After a couple near misses, my buddy just went to the over ride controls, moved the bucket straight up and away from the tree, and left him there til every thing was cleaned up and raked.

 

[Komitet]

#1 On the boss.

We had a supervisor last year that loved to be on site at all times, unless there was brush involved, one day he pulled up and got out was chatting etc.. huge piles of buckthorn to clean up.

I went to his truck and took his keys and put mine in his ignition (same trucks) and locked the doors, soon as the chipper fired he headed to the truck only to realize his keys were locked inside, he got pissed at himself and called the mech's in the area who have spares and decided it would be best to help us.

As soon as the chipper got turned off I went and opened the truck for him, he was PISSED to say the least, and still holds a grudge to this day.

#2 On me.

Different company. Was running a 75 foot high ranger with a 15 foot elevator, was working with a newer guy that should have stayed at home that day, useless and miserable, we got into a bit of an argument before lunch, spent lunch in silence, after lunch he says he's never worked on this truck and wanted to see how high it goes, I said sure, and took it to full extension to show him.

I could hear him yelling but couldn't understand him, he shut the truck off and yelled "I QUIT" and heaved the keys into the snow. I was stuck up there for 40 minutes before I got someones attention and had them call the shop, owner showed up 30 mins later to see what's up, I yelled what happened and he had to drive back to the shop to get the spares, 1 hour round trip, me freezing my ass off, and then oh the glory of hearing that diesel come to life.

Now I'll say, that was not a great prank, but some people saw humor in it.

 

[isaaccarlson]

#2 was not cool...could have turned out badly for you

 

[beastmaster]

Many years ago when I work for insect control, we would get a climber trainee up a slender pine to put in a tipping line, then we would wind test him.
Several of us would start pulling on the rope getting that tree whipping.
This usually had the new climber screaming while at the same time hugging that tree like his life depended on it. Of course this isn't correct behavior, but when your 25 and full of piss and vinegar it was lots of fun.

 

[dingeryote]

If ya clap your hands and startle a possum, quite often they will play dead long enough to be handled a bit.

Lets just say that a certain Govt. beaurocrat jackass co-worker, is still wondering how it came to be that 3 Possums ended up in his BMW.That one stirred all manner of investigations....but it seemed to be the proper thing to do at the time....oops! He didn't like folks farting in his cube as they passed either. Strange fella.

A certain Navy Captain and Commanding officer of a itty bitty litle island I was stationed on, had an annoying habit of using the term "Boloney" when making unpopular proclomations. He was NOT liked for his lack of integrity, and complete lack of a Military presence is not an endearing trait to Marines.

The dork got drunk as hell and managed to pass out between the O club and his billet one fair Friday night, where he was discovered by one of our own Marine officers.

The matter was phoned into us as a "Concern" for the good Captains safety, so he was quickly dressed in a Gals party dress borrowed from a Royal Navy officer(Never ask a brit sailor why they have womens clothes handy...) and loaded into his Staff car along with several packages of Bologna slices.
In addition the Car was covered with several dozen slices of Bologna, and all the mustard one could squeeze out of a box of packets.

The Staff Car was parked next to Island HQ and within several yards of the flag pole. Lets just say Sat. Morning all hands Mast was interesting,and the LAST ordered by that #######.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[keith811]

I had the packing blow out of a brand new cylinder while I was 50 or so feet in the air. no wait a minute that wasn't a prank that was poor maintenance. never mind. but let me tell ya amusement parks have nothing on that ride