Summertime fun or Vandalism?

[Kevin]

School got out last week. Sometime this week, someone cemented a toilet to the sidewalk a few streets over. The neighborhood association called in vandalism. I think it's more like pop art or just summertime fun for high school kids. Nothing worse than what we used to do in the summer.

One time we got a pretty good sized fire going in the middle of our street. The police actually showed up for that one.

I think it's kind of funny. And yes, the whole toilet is backed up with a load of fresh....cement.

And you know what...At least they aren't out breaking car windows.

 

[AJGUNNER]

I guess the opposum they put in the bowl would only be a surprise for the first lid lifter. :mrgreen:

 

[Ruger168]

My Mom told me that when she was a teenager, in the 30s she and some friends put the Preacher's buggy up the flag pole in the middle of town. Ha Ha !!

 

[graygun]

both

 

[Jim Puke]

I like that...could come in handy.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I had a friend whose Father Helped Assemble a Model T in the middle of the main Hall way of Tulsa Rogers High School; He said it left an Oil stain there that was still visible when he went to school there.

 

[Fox Mike]

Not enough room to explain IN DETAIL how big a 'mushroom cloud' is produced when a 5 lb can of black powder is set off outside the chem lab window at high school (done on a Saturday so no one was around). I can tell you that it was HUGH! LOTS of spectators arrived...along with the fire department.

 

[krw]

When I was a kid there was a poultry processing plant in our town. If you knew the right people you had access to highly concentrated soap they used for cleaning. Directly North of the courthouse square there was a fountain. It was amazing what would happen when a gallon of concentrated soap was put in it. Balls of foam as big as cars would blow down the street. When that lost the amusing factor then food coloring could be mixed to create different colors of foam. City officials finally made a rock garden out of the fountain. :(

 

[mykeal]

Yep. All in good fun.

Except, of course, if you're the one who has to pay for repairs and cleaning it up. Like the $490,000 bill and 90 days it cost a fellow who thought it would be fun to watch the Coast Guard conduct a search and rescue on Lake Huron a couple months ago.

Our local government authority actually has a 'vandalism repair' budget line item to help us taxpayers understand who the victim of these 'fun pranks' really is.

 

[contender]

Pranks like some above show off a creative mind AND do not cost a lot to reverse. It's the ones that create fear, (possible loss of life like the Coast Guard search) and expense for the taxpayer that go too far.
I thought the one I read about recently where a HS class paid for a mariachi band to follow the principal around was cute.

 

[bobski]

funny but.........

who paid for the bowl and who had to remove it?

if it cost an agency to be returned to normal its vandalizm.

 

[wixedmords]

Was it plumbed up to code? ;)

Could have been a lot worse. Wonder what the statement was.

Lots more vandalism by public officials these days. Doesn't make it right though.

Darn kids, can't they go home and play video games. :)

 

[stevemb]

I remember a big rubber tire loader being "borrowed" to shave off the speed bumps that were added to the schools parking lot and driveway to keep the boys from hot roddin'. I remember tires stacked to the top of the flag pole using a cherry picker. I remember the art teachers pony being rustled form 2 miles away and lots picked to get into the schools courtyard before dawn. After that, gotta worry about statute of limitations and such.

 

[Thunderhawk]

Vandalism. Someone had to spend time and money to remove the toilet and repair the damage.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Vandalism. Someone had to spend time and money to remove the toilet and repair the damage.

Hi,

Dunno where we got the "rule of thumb" but when I was in high school my own little circle of friends kept to the idea what whatever we did for "pranks" was ok if it didn't hurt anyone, cause property damage or cost money to undo...

While I do think this one's pretty funny, it does violate a couple of those sections. Guess that makes it look like vandalism from here, too...

That aside, I wonder: was it intended as "prank" or a more serious "statement?" We see more and more "parks" around here that have no restroom facilities (a variety of reasons has been heard.) You want kids to come play but don't give 'em a place to "go" which is just a part of being kids? That could cause some bad feelings!

Rick C

 

[Pierow]

And then there is Hank Hill, a cartoon tv character I may have mentioned before from the series "King of the Hill." Before you flame me he was actually voted one of the wisest characters / persons on television. A dork as well and I love all dorky people/characters. His version of a prank as a kid was to show up at the high school Sunday before sun-up with his friends, all having lawn tractors borrowed from their dads and mow all the practice football fields just to see the look on the lawn caretakers face when he showed up.

No harm, no damage and sort of fun if you are a dork. Noticing what you wrote Rick it looks like this prank would have qualified per your specifications. My guess is you would test positive for dorkiness.........which is a good thing.

Pierow

 

[nekvermont]

Vandalism. Someone had to spend time and money to remove the toilet and repair the damage.

I agree with Thunderhawk. That being said, I don't have anything to say about what I may have done or may not have done when I was a young one.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Ever seen a school Wall locker AFTER a Cherry Bomb goes off inside it?

Once had a friend in HS that painted the Headlights of the Bus that brought the opposing basketball to the game White (disclaimer: IT WAS NOT ME) Took the bus driver a little while to figure out what was wrong.

If we marched in the early part of a parade, we use to run BACK along the route and let the next several bands see us sucking on LEMONS; Sure made the brass and other instruments sound funny.

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Coming to high school one morning and seeing a large flock of chickens in the enclosed courtyard was pretty funny. Someone shooting many school windows with a BB gun not so much.

My dad tells me of when he was young every Halloween someone would dump soap in the fountain in the town square..great fun. I remember same happening next town over when I was young, you'da thought it was a toxic waste spill by the reaction.

What ever happened to petty vandalism being fun & OK?? sheesh :?

 

[graygun]

Ya cant yuse that terlit cause it's full and no aferds no privacy,yuk,yuk,yuk.

 

[Rick Courtright]

No harm, no damage and sort of fun if you are a dork. Noticing what you wrote Rick it looks like this prank would have qualified per your specifications. My guess is you would test positive for dorkiness.........which is a good thing.

Hi,

Guilty as charged, Pierow! But maybe there's an upside, too? I haven't made the "Film at 11" guest list yet... :oops:

Rick C

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

When I first moved to Alaska my first job was at Montgomery Ward store. Next to the dept I was in, was a "plumbing" dept. On display was a toilet. You guessed it. The salesman lifted the lid to show it and displayed it had been in "use". What a mess!!! :shock: :shock: :roll: :roll:

 

[Fox Mike]

Coming to high school one morning and seeing a large flock of chickens in the enclosed courtyard was pretty funny. Someone shooting many school windows with a BB gun not so much.

My dad tells me of when he was young every Halloween someone would dump soap in the fountain in the town square..great fun. I remember same happening next town over when I was young, you'da thought it was a toxic waste spill by the reaction.

What ever happened to petty vandalism being fun & OK?? sheesh :?

Everything now must be 'politically correct'; didn't you know that? :roll:
I won't EVEN talk about some of my Halloween 'happenings'.

 

[mohavesam]

When we discovered a couple of buckets of epoxy one night, the school doors needed a sawzall to free them up again. Took a week to get them all back to order. That's why the custodian had a sawzall, I guess? "Bricking (chcking the wheels with bricks) the tires on the cop cars outside the station was a staple. Spray painting the rearview mirrors on the school buses of an opposing team was just normal. So was... well, let's just stop here.

 

[ChiefMuzz]

Oh the pranks...
Filled my buddies car with packing peanuts once. Of course he was relieved once he got them all cleaned out only to get the "dust storm" when he turned it on. Yup flour in all his air vents and the ac turned all the way up.

Did a "Johnstown flood" a couple times in the dorms at college. It involved filling a small trash can up with water, tipping it against someone's door and then knocking.

Saw an article recently where the High School seniors paid a mariachi band to follow around the school principal for an hour.
Good times.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Another prank at the HS in Oklahoma involved the six inch Diameter pipe ( May have been old oilwell casings) they used to divide the rows of parking' SOme of the football players would take an auto and place it so the front wheels were on One Side of the pipe and the rear wheels on the Other side. (usually one of the cheerleaders cars)They would then wait a little bit away to watch the fun. before finally "volunteering" to help lift it off.

 

[Pal Val]

One of my HS buddies worked in a dry cleaning plant. He once brought a 10-ft long piece of the plastic bagging they used for the clothes. We closed it on both ends and filled it with gas from the chemistry lab Bunsen burners and hid the resulting balloon on the roof. That night, we climbed up to the roof, tied a lit cigarette to the balloon and let it loose. It blew up way up on the night sky. The next day, the local paper had news of a UFO sighting witnessed by dozens of people. We never got caught.

One of the teachers had a Fiat 500 he had brought from Italy. We found out he used to park it at the school at night to go to the movies nearby. One night, someone saw the car, got a few of us and we picked it up and walked it up the steps and to the door of his classroom. Lucky us, the watchman was playing hooky that night, so we got away with it. We called that teacher "Crazy Jose." Next day, he drove the car down the hall and down the steps to the teachers parking lot, as if nothing had happened. We were laughing our heads off and applauding all through that show.

Memories of high school (a bit more than 45 years ago).

 

[blackhawknj]

I distinguish between pranks that clean up easily-soaping windows, toilet paper in the trees, etc., and vandalism that requires expensive repair and threatens life and limb. Though some people need to be taught a lesson. I read a story of some military personnel who were denied admission to a swimming pool because one of them had the wrong pigmentation. They came back at night and popped an orange dye marker in it.
Always fond of PsyWar myself-poison pen letters, etc. In High School one girl rebuffed my attempts at friendship and was none too kind about it. I sent her a rather nasty letter-and signed it with the name of another kid I didn't like. In the Army I found sending threatening letters to obnoxious individuals telling them to perform anatomically impossible acts or stating they performed lewd and indecent ones was always good for a laugh. A Navy veteran said they had someone-who was never caught-sending clearly recognizable drawings of people in "compromising" positions to them and others in the unit. Imagine if he had digital photography. One Marine said they had an arrogant and overbearing E-4 who was always receiving packages of homosexual porn and "love" letters.
Sending threatening letters to prominent people with the name and return address of someone you dislike...
In college I would send angry and crabby letters to the school newspaper attacking some group or another and sign them with the name of a disreputable historical person who belief and outlook were described in the letter.

 

[SAJohn]

I admire clever pranks such as those done by Cal Tech at the Rose Bowl. Most notable was at the 1984 Bowl where some Cal Tech students snuck into the scoreboard control room with their own computer and changed to board to show Cal Tech whipping MIT.

Sweet revenge pranks can also be very satisfying. At the Navy Research Base I spent my career, the Marine main gate guards took great delight in giving the sailors grief. Some of the feed up sailors staged a diversion car accident and stole the main gate.

 

[Faux Paws]

Where did this occur? What's the back story? From the sign in back, it looks like it may to refer to Arapaho something or other...

Rick C may have the best opinion on a social statement, but without background, who knows?

Also, the blue color...what's up. High school rivalry?

As to the economic cost to the citizens of this fine community, relax. It's "only" a two day job for low wage city workers to remove the offending commode. A plum job, which will take a team of four to accomplish. They will have a blast chipping away, shoveling and sweeping up afterwards.

The town folks have a story to tell years. "Son, once there was a toilet cemented right here on this spot." Priceless.

FP
Disclaimer: I worked six summers as a city worker during HS and college. It was considered quite the "plum" job in my little town. Got to drive dump trucks and blacktop rollers, play with air hammers (no "sissy" ear protection, sad to say) and paint lines on streets. So, believe me I learned how fracking off on city time was a fine art.