Pranks Gone Bad...

I was watching this show today called the Greatest Pranks Ever. One of the pranks they showed was a bunch of friends who had taped the lottery drawing from the previous day and then went out and bought a lottery ticket with those numbers. They gave the ticket to their friend and then videotaped him as he watched the video and thought he was winning the lottery. It was really funny until they had to tell him it was a prank... then it was really sad. They had commentary on from comedians saying how funny it was at first, but then it was just so cruel and heartbreaking to watch this guy. They went on and on about how awful their friends were...

Who would ever do such a cruel thing to someone? I would.

My family had a white elephant gift exchange one year. My sister-in-law and I bought some gag gifts to add to the pile of gifts. One of the things we bought was a fake lottery ticket. My sister-in-law, my mom and I were the only ones who knew it was fake. I think we thought it would be really funny if my uncle or brother got the ticket... but that isn't what happened... I was horrified as I watched my GRANDMOTHER pick up the ticket! She started to scratch the ticket off... I remember as my Grandmother's ticket revealed she had just won $10,000 my mom started to play along and get really excited. It took a while for my Grandmother to realize she had won. My heart started to sink... this was not how I thought it would go... My Grandfather was getting excited too... My Aunt (who was not in on the prank) was getting really excited and as everyone was celebrating we started to realize we had to tell her at some point... What were we thinking?

I can't remember exactly how we told her, but I do remember it took some convincing that the ticket was fake... she didn't know they made fake tickets and she didn't understand how it wasn't real. I remember that it got quiet after everyone realized it was a prank. I felt terrible. How could I do this to my Grandmother!?!

Well she forgave me and she still loves me.

You would think that would be the end of my pranks, but it wasn't...

My dad is a crazy person with a leaf blower. He will use the leaf blower on his yard and then the neighbor’s yard on each side (because he doesn't want their leaves blowing into his yard.) He lives in a town house so he also leaf blows the common areas. He will spend hours and hours doing this.

So I got the bright idea to call him and leave a message on the machine saying I was from the town house complex and we were receiving a lot of calls complaining about him leaf blowing the neighbors yards. Then I said that he was taking work away from the landscapers that were hired to care for the common areas. I asked him to only care for his own yard. I ended the message by saying, "If you have any questions, call your daughter," and I left my phone number. I thought that by saying that he would realize I was just teasing him... but it didn’t quite work out like that...

So I got a phone call from my dad asking if I left the message. I laughed and said yes. He got really upset. He proceeded to tell me that they had company over when they played the message. They stopped it before they got to the end (where I revealed it was me) because they were so embarrassed that their company heard the message. My dad then told me he was upset because he works so hard to keep the landscape looking so nice and felt so unappreciated. So he went to the townhouse office and laid into them for the phone call... Imagine how he felt when they said they had never called.

Well, he went back home and listened to the message again... I was not his favorite person at that point...

I have never had much luck with pranks. They always seem so funny when someone else does them and then I try to "have a little fun"... and no one laughs.

I guess we all can't be a comedian.

Anyone else out there have a prank gone wrong? (Or is it just me?)