Back in the 50s when I was working in a laboratory I came across a recipe for what was described as the smelliest substance known to man. I made some … just a few drops, which I kept in a test-tube on my bench. Someone, thinking it was an empty tube with a bit of gunk in it, flushed it down the sink. The substance only became smelly after being exposed to the air for a while.
Above the laboratory were three floors of offices. The odour went up from the drains to the roof guttering then flowed down through the open office windows.
The whole building was evacuated!
A few days later the chief chemist, as he passed me in a corridor, quietly said: “I know it was you”
In the early 70’s I was walking in the woods near a creekbed. I found what appeared the be a suitcase. I opened it up and it was full of electronic type stuff. Tubes, wires etc. When closed the two sides plugged into each other. It also had an electrical cord with a plug. I took the thing home and plugged it in. It blew the power out in a two or three block radius. They never knew it was me.
I’m not sure the statute has run on some of my youthful escapades, so I’ll refrain from posting.
But pulling a good caper with no sign of suspicion directed your way later is one of the better feelings known to Mankind. And has probably been the starting impetus on the road to hell for quite a few people.
I’m assuming it’s a reference to an old joke where a traveler stops at a farm and convinces the farmer he can talk to animals. After convincing the farmer with likely sounding stories from the other animals, the travelers turn to the sheep and the farmer blurts out defensively…
It’s funny that this thread came up, because just this week my daughter said to me, “Remember that article in the paper years ago about the big bulldozer and crane that somebody took joyriding around the construction site at night?”
Yep. It was her and two of her high school friends. She drove the bulldozer. The construction crew had left the keys in both and they thought it would be fun. There was no damage done, and none of them were ever caught.
At the time my daughter was (and still is) barely 5’, tiny, and weighed about 95 lbs. I don’t have any idea how she was able to see to drive, or even reach the pedals of a bulldozer.