For many years I worked as an IT contractor which meant that I’d spend 3-48 months working for one company, then move on to somewhere else.
One of these contacts was for a large American supermarket chain. I worked as an engineer with several other blokes.
This is the place where The Sausage took place; if you don’t remember that story let me know and I can send it to you.
Anyway, this story is not about a sausage, it’s about Peter (not his real name) and his beloved Porsche 911.
He was a well-groomed chap with a lovely side-parting and expensive clothes. He had a very intentional image he worked hard to uphold of which the 911 was a big part.
He also had a lovely leather velvet-lined satchel which is the focus of another story, I’ll try and remember to tell you that one later.
This story is about Peter’s car key. It was the sort that folds into itself like most car keys do. It had a little button that you press and it pops open, you’ve seen them before.
Dave who worked with us had some Chewits that day, and what better partner for one of Dave’s Chewits than Peter’s 911 car key!?
As anyone would, Dave squished the Chewit into the cavity where the metal part of the key folds down, and folded the key down as hard as he could into it, until it clicked into place.
Some of the Chewit bulged out from the gap between the metal key and the plastic body, so he pushed it back in as best he could to make it all neat and tidy.
Pleased with himself he left it in Peter’s jacket pocket where he accidentally found it.
Not wishing to leave a job half-done, I got the roll of tape that was also on his desk, and proceeded to tear off a great many tiny pieces and wrap them around the key until it was a big ball of tape.
I was going to use one large piece which would have been a great deal quicker but that would have been easy to remove.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until it was time for us to go home.
Actually, for me and Dave the day continued to be uneventful.
Not so for Peter however.
As we found out the next morning, he was in a rush to get home and only when he got to his car did he realise what had happened to his key.
After 45 minutes of painstakingly picking at each piece of tape, only to find that the key was stuck down with a Chewit which was now quite dry and hard, he was not a happy chap.
Happily, he eventually managed to lever the key open with a 2p, so all was well.
I really don’t know why he was (still) so annoyed the next day.
And the day after that.
Have you ever done any pranks on co-workers? If so please tell me about it!
