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Fri 9 Jan, 2004 08:23 am
... but almost! Some people seem to have waaay to much time!
Man's Apartment Encased in Aluminum Foil
Thu Jan 8, 2:18 PM ET Strange News - AP to My Yahoo!
OLYMPIA, Wash. - What kind of friends coat your apartment ?- and nearly everything in it ?- with tinfoil while you're away? Here's a hint: One of the only objects that escaped the shiny treatment was a book titled "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends."
Chris Kirk found his downtown Olympia apartment encased in aluminum foil when he returned home Monday night from a trip to Los Angeles.
The walls, ceiling, cabinets and everything in between shimmered, after the prank orchestrated by Kirk's longtime friend, Luke Trerice, 26, who was staying in the apartment while Kirk was away.
"He's known for large-scale strangeness," Kirk, 33, told The Olympian. "He warned me that he would be able to touch my stuff, but it didn't sound so bad."
Trerice, who lives in Las Vegas, and a small group of friends draped the apartment with about 4,000 square feet of aluminum foil, which cost about $100.
Not surprisingly, the idea was hatched on New Year's Eve.
"It was just a spur of the moment thing," Trerice said. "I really don't even consider it art. I consider it a psychology project. ... He seems to be upbeat, so I consider this a success. "
No detail was too small or too time-consuming. The toilet paper was unrolled, wrapped in foil, then rolled back up again. The friends covered Kirk's book and compact disc collections but made sure each CD case could open and shut normally. They even used foil on each coin in Kirk's spare change.
And to sweeten the theme, they left silver Hershey's kisses sprinkled throughout the apartment.
"The toilet was hard. The molding around the doorways took a very long time," Trerice said.
Aside from "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends," which doesn't include this particular trick, only a portrait of his girlfriend, the bed and a bath mat were left unfoiled.
"He took special pains not to move anything," Kirk said.
A foil-encased picture hanging outside his apartment was Kirk's first clue that something inside was amiss.
"I heard him open the door and gasp and start laughing," said Beth Kelly, who lives in an apartment down the hall. "I love the quarters. It's almost more funny realizing the things that were left unwrapped."
Andras Jones, who lives on the same floor, became curious about what was transpiring in Kirk's apartment as he noticed "a parade of strange characters" going in and out.
Since Kirk's return the entire building has been buzzing about the transformation, Jones said.
"There's a party atmosphere down by the room," Jones said. "Of course, everyone has their favorite part. I think the kitchen is just amazing."
Kirk's awestruck neighbors and friends kept him up until late Monday night. He hasn't started unpacking his belongings and isn't sure when he will. "
"As I was trying to sleep last night, I realized that, actually, it's creepy," Kirk said.
And as for whether Trerice will ever be allowed to stay again at the apartment unsupervised, Kirk said: "I don't know. We'll see."
But Trerice hopes Kirk will find a way to get him back.
"I'm going to be insulted if he doesn't try," Trerice said. "It's kind of a challenge
Have you ever pulled a largescale prank like this? Share it with us, please!
Ummm... not on this scale I haven't.
This reminds me of a prank a bunch of us art students pulled in college in the '70s. We were all reading Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" at the time. We decided to transform the forested lawn outside the art building into a mallorn forest. (Silver trees with gold leaves.) It was autumn, so the leaves were already yellow-gold. All we had to do was wrap all the tree trunks & branches in aluminum foil. It took us a whole weekend, but it caused quite a stir!
Of course, we didn't think of it as a prank. We thought it was Art.
Yeah, right, Art...
Still good though!
I looooooooooooove "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends." (Penn and Teller.)
This is a great prank! Love the detail. (TOILET PAPER? Wow.)
Hope that guy comes up with some good revenge...
What amazed me was the fact that they had wasted $100 on something like this, and gone through the boredom of encasing everything... on a whim! So I'd agree with Bigdice's conclusion that people have too much time on their hands; is having too much time not why EVERYTHING happens?
I'm not really a prankster...I don't pull any kind of jokes on anyone that I wouldn't want done to myself.
This guy could save a lot on his electric bill...turn one light on and the whole place is lit up.
True, colorbook. But he can never use his microwave again!
...or he could have one large tanning booth.
One time when my cousin and I were teenagers we were on vacation here in Canada (we lived in Mass at the time) we were staying at our cousins house and one day my cousin said something in front of my other cousins that embarrassed me, so I went in our room, opened her bag and pulled out a box of maxi pads which I pulled all the strips off and stuck them all over the room. They were everywhere. I then went and got my other 4 cousins together in the room where we waited for my other cousin to come look for us. The look on her face was priceless. She was pissed, lol.
I can also remember another time when we were teens when myself, my brother and 2 cousins (one of them being miss maxi pad) were at McDonalds back in the days you could smoke in there. There was a picture on the wall, so we decided to light a cigarette before we left, dip the filter in an apple pie filling and stick it to the picture. We laughed our heads off as we walked out of there looking back to see the smoking picture.
This is not nearly as large but, when I was a kid, a teen actually, we had a really nasty guy in the neighbourhood. He would shout at you if you walked on his grass, call the police at the drop of the hat kinda guy. If he saw you crossing the street, he wouldn't slow down and then he'd yell at you to get out of the way....
Anyway, my friends and I, 15 kids, all snuck out one night and turned his car, a little datsun, upside down. A week later, we picked it up and turned it sideways in the drive way, it was a tight squeeze. A week later, we put it on his picnic table.
A month later, we put it in the center of the road, sideways, between two parked cars.
He moved soon after that.
When I was in the Air Force we moved one guys entire room into the bathroom. Looked exactly the same except for the surroundings.
That's good, Wilso.
I once had a boss who never spent any money on his own office, but had everyone else's redecorated. One of us had some extra money left in his budget at year-end, so when the boss went on vacation, we re-carpeted his office. (Changed the color, too...from worn-out turquoise to caramel.) We moved every single thing out of his office & back in in exactly the same position...right down to paper clips in exactly the same place on his desk. Took pictures first to make sure. When he returned, it took him 30 minutes to figure out what the new carpet smell was and notice it! We got SUCH a good laugh!
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