

Revealed after 50 years: The secret of the greatest-ever student prank - nickb
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1030091/Revealed-50-years-The-secret-greatest-student-prank.html

======
michaelp
My father is one of the two pranksters named in the article. The diagram of
how to get the car up and over the edge of the roof was the big secret and
closely resembles the sketches he showed me as a child. The article doesn't
say that they had to get the car up in 20 minutes because of the regular beat
of the local policeman.

My family were all sworn to secrecy as they had agreed to keep the mystery up
- I went to the same college and had to play dumb, even though the authorities
had a good idea of who had done it.

We revisited the college recently and sneaked up the tower to go over some of
the more obscure details.

I have actually played a couple of fairly major jokes in my time, but this
page isn't the place to talk about them.

~~~
adnam
I heard that once some pranksters got sent down for soap-bombing the fountain
in the engineering department, just after their finals. Hence 4 years work and
no degree. The wrath of the university can be more scary that the police in
many ways.

------
aneesh
<http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/misc/best_of.html>

Some of the MIT hacks are nearly as impressive, though the MIT kids have the
advantage of modern technology. One that stands out was a police car on top of
their main dome, _complete with coffee and a donut box containing instructions
for taking the police car down_.

------
brandnewlow
The picture at the bottom of the story makes it worth a look all on its own,
perfectly capturing the truth behind why many of us
hack/build/design/create...for that post-release thrill of having a woman gaze
curiously and perhaps even admiringly at what we've just made. The guy's face
says it all. I know I've been there many a time.

------
mhartl
That's fantastic, but I'm afraid this is not the greatest prank ever. Which
one is? This one:

[http://today.caltech.edu/today/story-
display.tcl?story_id=11...](http://today.caltech.edu/today/story-
display.tcl?story_id=11423)

------
PieSquared
Why is it that almost all of these pranks have happened 10 or more years ago?

~~~
notauser
Because if you tried it today you would be arrested for terrorism.

~~~
nickb
Well said. Let's not forget this from the last year:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare>

~~~
notauser
This one was good too - bomb squad called in over cardboard boxes painted like
Mario ? blocks.

<http://www.bladediary.com/questionblocks/index.html>

------
obelix
Genius.

That bottle of champagne was awesome too!

~~~
staticshock
_The then Dean of Caius, the late Rev Hugh Montefiore, had an inkling who was
responsible and sent a congratulatory case of champagne to their staircase,
while maintaining in public he knew nothing of the culprits._

that's definitely the best part! good to know that some people can take a joke

------
weegee
nowadays the pranksters would have been arrested and sent to jail. back then
people had more common sense. now the authorities are a bunch of low-IQ idiots
and we're all subject to their twisted view of reality.

