House Pranks
Flight of the Flamingos
Under cover of darkness, fill a neighbor, friend or rival’s yard with pink flamingos. You can buy them from someplace like Oriental Trading Company or, in a few U.S. cities, you can rent them or even hire someone to do it. A few charities even do this as a fund-raiser. Warning: Apparently, in some locales, a flamingo is code that the residents want to “party” with other couples.
TP Turnaround
You’ve heard of putting toilet paper all over the outside of someone’s house, but how about sneaking a key and tp-ing the inside instead?
Paper Lyin’
Sneak over to your target’s house after the morning newspaper is delivered and replace it with yesterday’s newspaper.
Door Prize
Cover a doorway with clear plastic wrap and wait for someone to try to enter. This works best in a darkened room, especially during a party.
Malevolent Movers
This one takes a lot of time and energy, but the results are worth it! While house-sitting, or having sneaked into someone’s house, get some friends to help you switch the furniture from one room to another, or even from one floor to another. You could also turn furniture upside down, or, if you’re really industrious, have all the furniture moved to someone else’s house, or to a storage unit. You could replace their furniture with junky furniture, or inflatable furniture or whatever. Your target must have a good sense of humor for this prank.
Lights Out
Unscrew all the lightbulbs just a bit. They’ll try flipping circuits before realizing it’s just the bulbs.
Label Maker
Using labels or Post-It, go around someone’s house labeling things. You can use the real names of the items, or joke names. Be creative and they’ll be finding your little notes for months to come.
Fork in the Lawn
Ever heard of “forking” someone’s lawn? Take a whole bunch (hundreds!) of cheap plastic forks and stick them, tine-side down, all over the lawn. They’ll have to remove them all before they can mow or otherwise use their lawn.
Whistling Dixie
Buy a whole lot of Dixie cups—the small, paper kind. Line them up on the floor close to one another, and as you go, fill them halfway with water. (Be sure to leave yourself an escape route.) This won’t hurt the carpet, unless your victim neglects to take the time to pick up each cup individually.
Chalk Talk
Chalk “body” outlines, crime-scene style, in someone’s driveway and sidewalk.
Peanut Party
With a lot of packing tape and packing peanuts, you can fill an entire small room (such as a bathroom) with packing peanuts. Run strips of tape across the door frame (warning: may damage paint or wood) and throw more and more peanuts in as you go. This would also be fun with balloons.
Who’s Home?
Sneak into someone’s house, take a picture of yourself standing in their house wearing their clothes, and send it to them.
Held for Ransom
“Kidnap” your neighbor’s treasured lawn ornament, or co-worker’s lucky knick-knack and hold it for “ransom.” Send pictures of the item with notes saying it will not be returned until the person performs a variety of silly tasks (such as bake cookies for the whole office.)
Attack of the Lawn Animals
Better yet, take a bunch of lawn animals from all over the neighborhood and put them on one person’s lawn.
Animal Nature
First, make sure your “target” has a good sense of humor. And lawn animals. Sneak into their lawn and rearrange their animal into compromising positions, such as kissing, chasing one another—use your imagination.
Key to Fun
During a party, drop someone’s keys into a container of water and freeze them. They won’t be getting home as quickly as they may have hoped.