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My uncle might have inspired the Travelocity Gnome commericals...
My two aunts are very very close and have been all their lives. Even after they both got married they bought houses and lived blocks apart from each other. The two of them and their husbands were all best friends and did everything together.
One of my aunts (and her husband) ended up having to move very far away for work to a very small town in the middle of nowhere. The other aunt (and her husband) drove the long distance about once a month to go and visit.
The town (back then) was one stoplight, a gas station, a mom and pop grocery store, two resturants and a repair garage. They would always eat at the one resturant whenever company came to visit from out of town. Being such a small town, the resturant owners liked to talk the custormer's ears off especially people from out of town. This irritated my uncle who was from out of town.
The resturant owner took up wood working and eventually made a cartoon character pig that his wife painted. They made a stand for the pig and placed outside of their resturant during the day and it became the resturant's mascot.
The pig was about 3 feet tall and about 2 feet wide and was a cartoonish looking pig standing upright.
The owners talked about their pig all the time and talked about it almost like it was their child. One time, when my out of town aunt and uncle were leaving for their long drive home, they saw the pig in front of the resturant after hours and my aunt commented that that was not a good thing because the pig could get kidnapped or something.
So my uncle loaded up the pig in their car and they drove home. My uncle is very onry and took some pictures of the pig at some famous Los Angeles landmarks (where my uncle lived). He took one of the pig with the Hollywood Sign in the background, one at the beach, one in front of Disneyland, etc... Each week he would mail one photo of the pig back to the resturant.
The next time my uncle visited the little town and was taken to the resturant, the owners talked his ears off about how their pig disappeared but had been sending them photos. My uncle suggested they start putting the photos on the walls for people to see.
When my family went on summer vacation, my uncle paid us money to take a picture of the pig on the Golden Gate Bridge, on a trollycar, at Alcatraz, in the Redwoods...
My uncle shipped the pig to Germany where his son was stationed in the Army and had him take German photos with the pig. My uncle went to NYC on business and took the pig with him and took photos (empire state building, times squae, statue of liberty, subway, taxi cab, broadway, wall street...)
Each time he went back to the resturant, all the photos were posted on the wall and the resturant owners had made up stories about where the pig was and why he was there.
My found a woodworker and paid him to make a similar girl pig and painted it similar and took both pigs to Hawaii on vacation with him.
Over about 10 years, the pig/pigs also made it to Old Faithful, Mt Rushmore, The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Mississippi Riverboat, Grand Canyon, Sea World....
For several months, the local TV news had a segment each Friday about where the pig(s) were. The local newspaper also posted each weeks pig photo for a while.
After around 10 years of this, one of the resturant owners got real sick. My uncle decided as a present he would return the pig to the resturant. He went to the resturant after hours and put both pigs where he had taken the first pig from, but one of the owners was still inside the resturant and saw him.
He and his wife, and my aunt and uncle who lived in that little town were banned from that resturant for life. The two pigs were brought out and displayed each day and taken inside each night. The owner attached a chain to each pig that was connected to the resturant.
The Travelocity Gnome ads did not appear until years afterwards.
let's lighten the mood, shall we? Jun 12, 12:09
HA that's funny.. Must be a busy area to have so many cars passing so early in the morning. {nm} Jun 12, 12:47
when pulling a prank like this, one car driving by is nerve-racking! {nm} Jun 12, 13:15
LMFAO... yeah, it was a "mean" prank for sure. I've done worse. {nm} Jun 12, 13:15
LOL!!! now that would be too good. {nm} Jun 12, 13:16
Good one. Nice Touch. *Watches all your Neighbours instantly Install Security Cameras.* {nm} Jun 12, 13:12
I've been debating it for some time now, but mostly because of my neighbor. {nm} Jun 12, 13:16
Sorry, that's not a prank - that's being a jerk. {nm} Jun 12, 13:54
Excellent Prank - Nobody got Hurt - No Damage. It's not like you took the Biebster & 24 Dozen Eggs. {nm} Jun 12, 14:03
My uncle might have inspired the Travelocity Gnome commericals... Jun 12, 14:47
ha! {nm} Jun 12, 15:08
this is such a great story and terrific prank. had my wife read it and she loved it. Thank you for sharing Razor. {nm} Jun 12, 19:06
That's a great story but I thought the ads were inspired by amelie Jun 12, 19:39
excellent film btw {nm} Jun 12, 20:02
I always liked the extreme gas mileage prank... Jun 12, 18:26
hilarious! that would be a tad on the expensive side today. {nm} Jun 12, 19:34
LMFAO!!!! How in the WORLD did you get away with keeping $2k??? And we used to have a Bahama Breeze here, Jun 13, 10:50