Innocent Bystanders

When Practical Jokes Turn Bad November 30, 2011

Have you ever played a great prank on a friend or coworker, only to have the prank turn a little uncomfortable between the setup and the payoff?  That’s where I’m at today.

In case you didn’t know, I work at a farm implement dealership in the parts department.  Back in mid-October, the parts department noticed that the sales department kept leaving the keys in a “gator” utility vehicle overnight.  They kept leaving it right outside the front door, so it wasn’t like it was back away from everything where it would probably never be noticed.  We kept telling them that was a bad idea, but they kept doing it day after day.  Finally, on the last Sunday in October, I was out at the dealership pulling some parts for one of our mechanics when I decided to make a statement.

I hopped in the UV, started it up, and drove it to the furthest point on the lot away from it’s normal location, where I hid it behind some combines in a shed.  I put the keys for the vehicle under the counter at my workstation, and then called a coworker AND a member of the corporate parts team to let them in on the gag (just so I couldn’t be accused of trying to steal the damn thing….I may be dumb, but I ain’t stupid).  They both got a good laugh out of the joke, and we thought about starting up a pool as to when the sales department would notice the missing vehicle and start a panicked search for it.

Skip to a whole month later, and the gator is still gathering dust down in the shed where I hid it.  There’s ZERO indication that anyone knows it’s gone, and that worries me more than if the sales department had blown up over its absence.

So I need some input from you, my fake-internet friends, on how to proceed from here.  Do I bring it back & put it exactly where I found it (with the keys in the ignition and everything)?   Or do I double down and try to see if they notice a tractor or combine going missing?  There’s a big ol’ 4WD Cat Challenger with front & rear dualies sitting across the road in our “used” lot that sticks out like a big yellow sore thumb in that sea of green.  I’m thinking that the Cat might be a suitable candidate for escalation, but I don’t think “going there” is a good idea for multiple reasons:  Mostly because there’s no good place on-site to hide it so I’d have to take it off-site to make the gag work, and that’s awfully damn close to THEFT for me to be comfortable.

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