U guys have probably done this B4, but what r ur favorite station pranks?
I was all over the place: short-sheetin beds, shaving cream in the boots, billiard balls in helmets, saran wrap the toilets, but my favorite (it never failed to scare the hell out of 'em @ 2 AM) was with battery switches off, turn EVERYTHING on on EVERY unit. Yeah, I'm a sick, sadistic little SOB!
Permalink Reply by Chad on February 11, 2008 at 8:40am
Find a walkie talkie, recording of the tones, and somone sleeping. Put the one walkie talkie by the sleeping person and have the other in hand and use the recording to wake the person up and watch em run.
Practical Jokes are always fun. Never under any circumstance does it involve apparatus, equipment, or turnout gear. (although I must say Micks story was pretty funny but it didn't truely involve a piece of apparatus) Other than that, it must be done with safety in mind (no water on clothing etc since water causes steam burns and I would rather have the firefighter available for interior duty than have to go home to change)
At a banquet one time a neighboring department attempted to play a practical joke on my chief and it ended up costing them about $400 to fix. They tried to take his mobile antennea off his car, ended up snapping it, and scratching the car.
Remember this law of physics also. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" I agree with most of this statement with the acception of the word equal. Usually when its payback it is much worse. Be careful that the person you are playing the joke on can take a joke, and won't become offended, or become violent. No need to piss anyone off to the point they leave or pick a fight. (moral of the story, pick your battles wisely lol.)
After ladder 49 came out we had a problem with burning paper being slipped under the bathroom door everytime anyone went in. Had to threaten to throw it in the garbage pail to get them to stop. Yesterday when I was cleaning the toilet, I got locked in the bathroom with the lights shut off. Tried to get out for about ten minutes before I remembered that the door locks from the inside. haha. After we had a big yardsale fundraiser, we put a big pair of "granny undies" on one of our older firefighter's POV's side mirrors. He took off down the highway with them blowing in the wind! Two guys put on some ladies' nighties and chased down our chief. Great pictures.
You can't leave anything laying around our station. We've had guys thinking they've lost their car keys for hours at a time.
Permalink Reply by MANDY on February 11, 2008 at 11:20pm
One of my favorite pranks happened to the one person who sleeps the most at the station. They were in one of the small bunk rooms sleeping by about 3pm. So the guys took a fog machine and began to fill this small room with smoke. They then made sure that none of the smoke could exit out by filling in the cracks. Next, they had a few people hold the door shut. Then, they set off the fire alarms!
A friend and I took a guys boots and shot off a dry chem into each one. Then we turned his boots backward in his bunkers, so when he pulled them up they were backward.
The best part of the prank is when he complained, an officer looked in his boots and said that his "sample" extinguishing agent must have gotten spilled somehow. I guess you can tell that this guy wasn't very well liked.
Permalink Reply by Chad on February 12, 2008 at 9:28pm
Its never happened at the station but at my day job guys love to time the old style airhorn cable to the door handle with fishing line. Open the door in the morning and get a good wake call. After a couple of times I learned to put my gear in from the passanger side. They used to tie the front doors together too.
While the engine company slept we stenciled boot prints on the back of all their coats in chalk and while at a call at 3am they stood there each with the big boot prints on their backs and it took the chief to tell them to move out of the trucks way next time for them to get mad.
When I worked a bus I had a partner that slept all the time I pulled nose to nose with a tractor trailer and turned on all the lights and raced the motor and screamed...He didnt sleep much after that!!!!!
How about a visit from fluffy the incontinent cat? Get a sink full of soap suds and put them on the guys lap when he is a sleep in the recliner. He wakes up with a wet lap and no evidence of the soap ever being there.
Every time a new firefighter was assigned to the house we would lace his suspender through the bed rail when the firefighter was fast asleep - Then ring the turn out bell, and watch him try pulling his bunker pants up.....Have fun - Be safe.