I did the craigslist ad thing to a buddy that is very easy to get riled up when we were in highschool.

He drove a typical Honda civic with all the bolt on bullshit. I was banging his sister at the time (he knew, didn't care, so just call me a douche for the prank), and asked her to send me a picture of his car. Posted it on craigslist for cheap and added "si habla espanol" at the end. He finally figured it out and was pissed beyond belief, which just made it funnier. He laughs about it now.

On the last day of my job working for a place I couldn't stand (the work itself was great but it was full of narcissistic pricks who thought their shit didn't stink) I got a bottle of skunk scent that hunters use to mask their smells in the woods.   I unscrewed the cap and placed the bottle on the floor beneath the locker of the worst. jerk there.  It didn't even take a minute before the whole place smelled like skunk.

I went back two days later to collect my last check.  Even after two days I could still smell leftover whiffs of skunk in the hallways.  Everyone was giving me the evil eye but there was no way they could prove it was me.

This stuff is no joke.  I had to keep the bottle inside a plastic bag and then put the plastic ban inside a jar to prevent it from stinking up the house.

There is now. Usually they send you a verification code to verify the number....

I once subscribed my really buddy that was a pastors son to some cheap porn mag and his parents freaked out.

We also used to send lots of people the condom samplers you could order when we were in grade school and kids parents were so pissed off.


There is a site you can anonymously send dildos to people.

You can also buy pubic lice eggs online to plant on someone.

Back in the late 80's a neighboring community passed an anti gay ordinance.
One of my co workers lived in the area with a male roommate.
Another co worker put a sign on the back of his truck that said "I am gay".
The next morning at work he said he found it when his neighbors were milling around his truck frowning.
Said he also got a lot of middle fingers while in traffic.

Another guy bought a new Harley and would park it in the shop on the clean painted floor.
I put a few drops of used motor oil under the crank case, just for laughs.

ITT: people who don't understand the difference between pranks and malicious mischief.

I don't know. A hospital once gave me a "$250" empty gift card as a thank you for a 2-year stretch as department chairman.

Few things we did/have seen at work.

Clear tape on prongs of power tools.
Clear tape on phone handset. Your can hear them but they can't hear you.
Turn drawers over in desk so when they open them everything falls on floor.
Back screws almost all the way out of drawer handles so they pull off when they go to open them.
Removed casters from desk chairs.
Installed warehouse phone ringer under desk of boss. He nearly shit himself when the phone rang.
Handful of 3/8 nuts in hubcap. You normally only drive 10 feet before you stop to figure out what the noise is.
Wrapped shrink wrap around service managers truck. Owner saw it...didn't find it funny.
Wet mop upside down leaning against outside of bathroom door.
Bottle rockets shot under bathroom door. We have a small one holer at work.
"Flipped" screen in windows settings. Poor guy had no clue how to fix it. I walked in and he had the monitor upside down on his desk.
Large rock dropped down Porta sitter vent. Ok, this one isn't that nice but some guys spend their whole break in there.
When in high school we "potatoed" a buddy's lawn. They had a sale on potatoes. We bought something like 50 pounds and scattered them all over the lawn. My friend ate dinner over there a few days later. They had at least 2 types of potato sidedishes with dinner. The kids mom related the story about them waking up and all the potatoes were on their lawn. My buddy couldn't stop laughing.

I worked in an Air Force maintenance shop back in the late 80s. Everyone pranked  everyone else. There were two desks butted up against each other in the middle of the main office. One of the occupants had pranked me a few days before and I was plotting my revenge. While he was away I crimped the end of a small copper tube to create a spray nozzle, connected it to some quarter inch clear tubing and taped it to the bottom of his center desk drawer. I ran the tubing to the opposite  desk's side drawer and connected it to a squirt bottle.

When my coworker returned I casually walked over to the other desk like I needed something, opened the drawer and started pumping the squirt bottle. I worked it for what seemed like 3 or 4 minutes and got no response. I'm thinking it's not working, when he finally jumps up looking at a huge wet spot on his pants and shout's "you bastard"!  All the rest of us died laughing.

Why it took so long for him to notice was back then the uniform of the day was the original ripstop camo uni. It was sort of water resistant so it took quite a while to soak through to the point where he felt it. The real kicker is we convinced him to leave the setup in place so we could get someone else with it. "Someone else" ended up being him again two days later.

Was at a summer camp one year in high school.  I found the boiler room for the showers was left unlocked.  Turned off the hot water heater for the girls' showers.  They were royally ticked (as was the camp staff) when they found out what had been done, but never caught me.

The old clear tape on the underside of a computer mouse trick is always good.  So is unplugging the mouse and/or keyboard.

Glitter in the air intake for the heating/cooling system in a car is one I've always contemplated, but I consider that a bridge too far, and won't actually do it.

We rigged up a supervisor's office one day with crime scene tape and a chalk outline on the floor, complete with random desk crap in makeshift evidence baggies.  I signed the baggies as Detective Harry Callahan.  He wasn't amused, and for days afterwards kept checking to make sure nothing in his office was missing, and threatening to call the cops if anything was.

One that backfired on me, though, was the old dead rattlesnake trick.  We have our own wash station and fuel pumps for the fleet vehicles, and in years past, it was a common thing to find someone had killed a rattler and coiled it up at one or the other of these.  Well, I decided to pull it one day myself.  Found a nice big rattler, bashed its head a few times until it stopped moving and its head was the shape of a bowl, then picked it up and threw it into the back of my truck.  At the end of shift, I went back to retrieve it and leave it at the wash rack.  However...  The rattler was not only still alive, but it had managed to pull its head back together and it was hiding under the toolbox and royally pissed at me.  I had to get a broomstick to reach under there to get it, but the dang thing had hooked itself on something under there and wouldn't come out until I'd bashed it to pieces and splattered blood and scales all over my truck.  Figuring there was no way it was good for a prank now, as it was quite obviously dead (and not coming back from it this time!), I threw it in the garbage.  Word got out about the "zombie rattlesnake," and as far as I know, that was the last time anyone tried that particular prank.
Poor groundskeeper didn't change that garbage can for two weeks, though.  There was a rattlesnake in there!

"anonymous practical joke" = "being an asshole and denying it"

the whole point of a practical joke is that your buddy knows it was you who did it.

Have a friend who found one of our coworkers computers unlocked one time after checking email, he changed the background to the official NAMBLA logo

My favorite was to take a screenshot of someone's desktop with the logon prompt showing. They would go nuts trying to click in the box and enter their password.

Before going on vacation, I set a Blue Screen of Death screensaver on a couple of the machines in our computer lab. When I got back, the manager was going on about it's good you're back, we haven't been able to get these working, we've tried everything. I walked over and moved the mouse....

One of the great ones we did up at the lake one summer. A buddy had a Jeep that he was really proud of. Had a big CB whip antenna on it with a racoon tail or something tied to the end.  One of our bunch managed to get him to loan him the Jeep so he could go into town and pick some stuff up.

We're all sitting around when the guy who borrowed the Jeep returns.... walking, soaking wet. "Sorry, Jim... the brakes went out on the Jeep", and points down towards the shore, where tire tracks lead right into the water, and about thirty feet out, the top foot or so of that antenna just waving above the waterline.

After staring for a moment, the Jeep owner takes off running, dives in and swims out.... and comes back to shore holding the wooden pole we'd attached his antenna to and planted out in the lake.  The Jeep was safely hidden around the corner.

I like the idea of the fire and forget time bomb pranks, like burying a bizarre Internet picture in a setup folder in the filing cabinet (think the rainbow brony guy, etc), or stashing a dildo someplace where it won't be found until the next time maintenance takes a machine apart for a semi-annual preventive. You'll never get to see the punch line, but you know it will be priceless.

CL explicitly states you can get in legal trouble and a fine of up to $10k for doing that.

I used to do it with free unopened bags of dog food years ago.

Robert Heinlein nailed it almost 50 years ago:
A "practical joker" deserves applause for his wit according to its quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest.

IDK. Would super-gluing nickles on the floor and watching people try to pick them up qualify?

Car for sale on Craigs list prank,happened to a nasty bitch at work but I dont know nothing about that.



she also sold a TV and some furniture I'm told.

doing it anonymously counts as being an asshole.  i'm not saying that it wouldn't be fun, but some people think beating up fat kids is fun.

if you prank someone and don't have the balls to own it, something is wrong.

Is it wrong to beat up fat kids as long as you have the balls to own it?

I posted before but I don't think y'all understand just how much free stuff there is out there on the internet with an email address, physical address, and name.

Feminine products
Depends
Diapers
Medical condition pamphlets
medical libraries
VHS Tapes
workplace warning posters
Food Samples
MAGAZINES (Jet, Ebony, and Latina People are often free)

Get their address AND SEND THEM A BUNCH OF STUFF.

There was some dick who was putting random computers at work to keyboard in Dvorak mode for a while.   It was real funny...

Dvorak keyboard:

You used to be able to switch to a Dvorak keyboard in windows.

Dilute this stuff and put it in a water pistol. It is awful!

Put creamy peanut butter on bathroom stall handle.
When person locks the door you get this mild silence
Followed by WTF! Funny as shit when your sitting
In the next stall.

Put a large industrial zip tie on the driveshaft of a coworker's truck. As soon as he starts backing out of the parking spot.... *thwack*thwack*thwack*thwack*thwack* as it slaps the underside of the cab. He stops the truck and the noise stops. Gets out of his truck and looks around WTF? Gets back in and starts backing again... *thwack*thwack*thwack*thwack*... rinse, repeat for several minutes before he crawls under the truck and finds the zip tie. We're all dying in the lobby watching this play out.

Walmart offered free samples of Depends adult diapers. Everyone I knew got a pair. Then I started making up names with PO Boxes at my local post office.

This is cool:

http://fakewindowsupdate.com/

No idea why, but I started putting a penny on the car window of a guy who parks in the same place as me. I know him - not well, but we have tons of mutual friends. Apparently, he's starting to get a little freaked out. So I recently upped it to nickels and dimes. Going for quarters in May.

This happens about 2-3x week. Sometimes 2x per day if it works out right.


Dumb, but it amuses me.

My BIL works in a tire shop. He was telling me how he put 8oz of wheel weights on one of his boss's wheels. Boss was super cool about it after he pulled off the side of the road and walk almost two miles home to get his truck and trailer and tow his daily driver home lol.

Why creamy? Chunky might work even better.

I once put a tarantula in a coworker's toolbox. His reaction was priceless.

The best are the "time bomb" ones.  The kind that don't come to fruition for weeks and you end up forgetting about them.  It's like sending yourself a Christmas present.


Also, black tape over the optical sensor on a colleagues mouse is always good.  Especially when the IT guy has too come down.  It's even better when the IT guy can't figure it out and replaces the mouse.

My favorite came from a similar thread here a decade ago.

Prior to the auto-darkening welding helmets.  

I cut a piece of black construction paper the same size as the window of an arc welding helmet glass, and slipped it between the glass and filter.

A few days later, the paper showed up on my desk with a note saying "I'll get even".

I used to bring in a dozen hard boiled eggs at a time, and eat a couple of them for lunch.

This same guy used to take one for himself in the evenings.

One day I came in with a dozen that weren't hard boiled.  

I came in one morning and saw the stain on the carpet.  Nothing was ever said about it, but after that he always asked if he could have one.

1. Put out some alcohol gel\hand sanitizer.



2. April 1st switch contents with KY lube.



3. Hide from a lynch mob\deny involvement once HR gets involved because someone thinks it's sexual harassment.

 

A friend of mine needed some parts so I sent them to him.



Well, I might have put the TROJAN logo on the return address part and added the words, "YOUR REQUESTED FREE SAMPLE OF TROJAN MICROS ENCLOSED". He lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, but what made it even better was he was on vacation. I didn't know it but he was gone when the package arrived and he had the Post Office holding his mail. So the box sat on a shelf for a week while all the PO employees walked by it.

I printed out a shit load of trollface.jpg pictures, and taped them to the underside of people's mouses right over the sensor.

It was incredible seeing my stupid fucking friends try and figure out why the goddamn mouse wouldn't move.

Alternatively putting people's keyboards in Dvorak mode, and confetti on ceiling fans has been fun.

Place ad in CL....

For rent:

Two bedroom apartment. Off street parking, utilities included, pet and smoker friendly. I work second shift, please call after 11pm for inquiries.

Price it 10% below market prices. Attach victims phone number.

Back in high school I used to put those paper snap thingies under the toilet seats and put drops of conditioner on the sides of the stalls.
Stuff looked exactly like cum.

I handed out durian cookies at work, hilarity ensued



An IT guy came by and was telling me the taste would not go away and he kept burping durian

Signed a pal up on every mailing list we could find with a nickname he didn't particularly care for. He got junk mail with that name on it for a good decade.

I don't think a giggle was their then end game, but I'm sure there were a few.  

You do bring up a good point, there are different levels a screwing with someone for different situations.  i.e., I had a friend that wouldn't quite calling me shortly after dawns light.  Land line era.  I asked him to quite but he wouldn't.  Found a site that would provide you wake-up calls.  Couple of weeks of midnight to 4am, wake-up calls for him and his wife, he stopped calling in the morning.  reasonable force

I have done lots over the years but the longest lasting one was at a Coast Guard unit where we had a woman no one liked and she was rough on the eyes, like physically painful to look at.

Somehow I got an 8X10 of her and ran off a bunch of Zerox copies, a bunch of copies.  I was a short timer waiting for a transfer and spent one entire day stashing copies of her picture all over the place, in various offices, inserted in drawers, random filing cabinets, in random files, inside of books and manuals.

If there was a cabinet, closet, office, shelf, desk, bag, gear, ceiling tiles, etc., then I would place a copy of her picture.

For years I got calls and emails about people finding the pictures.  When guys would transfer out and new people would come in it became part of the new guy's in-brief. "Oh by the way if you find any pictures of a lady wearing a witches hat in uniform, just throw it away.  USCG_CPO hid those around here years ago."

It has been 20 years since I did that and my old shipmates on FB still give me shit for it

Had a teacher in HS that was always had his stuff in the exact same place at all times. We would move something and see how long it took for him to notice.

coworker did this but used karo syrup (spelling) for a great/sticky surprise ..

As a kind of harmless but funny joke I like to take a screen shot of a buddies desktop, then I take all his icons and hide them off the side of the screen, last step is setting the screen shot of his desktop as his background

 

I knew a guy who wired a car horn to his boss' vehicle using the trailer wiring harness.  Honked every time he hit the brakes when he left work that day.