From: dtasman@NMSU.edu (Dan Tasman)
Subject: Re: Lawn Ornaments
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:09:57 GMT

frye@amcl10.math.stolaf.edu (James E Frye) writes:
: Here's a shenanigan I haven't seen discussed yet:
: 
: We regretfully never pulled this one off, but I still think it is a 
: pretty good plan.  Thought I would share the idea for discussion, anyway.
: 
: Background:
: Both my roommate (Tony) and I are Minnesota natives and attend Saint Olaf
: in Northfield, Minnesota.  However, last summer, Tony worked in
: Jackson, Wyoming, while I nearly accepted a job in Boca Raton, Florida.
: 
: The Plan:
: The idea was to find neighbors with plastic lawn elves, or other such silly
: lawn ornaments.  The pink flamingoes are a bit too generic; look for 
: something with human characteristics, if possible.  
: 
: After locating such friendly lawn ornaments, "borrow" them for a while.
: Since we were leaving the state, what we planned to do is take along the
: lawn ornament, and take pictures of it at famous landmarks across our
: fine country.  Next, develop the film, and periodically send home a letter
: from the lawn ornament, discussing what a wonderful vacation it is having,
: et cetera.  Imagine the looks on the owners' faces when they get a letter
: from their lawn elf, and a picture of the elf at Mount Rushmore, Old
: Faithful, Disney, and so on.  Send a letter home about once a week.
: 
: The problems with this are:  1) It is hard to find ornaments such as these,
: 2) If the victims know you, your cover is blown; therefore, one of the
: sad things is that you never really get to see the reaction of the victims.
: (Although, if you do this to a "Friend of a Friend", you at least get a
: second hand account.)
: 
: This can also (obviously) be done to just one person, but since we were 
: both planning to go out of state, we wanted to give the neighbors something
: to talk about.  Too bad I never left!  *Sigh*
: 
: Oh, and the final kicker of the shenanigan is to return the elves at the
: end of the summer, thus causing great wonder by the owners as to exactly
: *what* their elf has been doing of late....  Anyway, returning the elf
: also moves this from the realm of pranks (theft) back to a harmless
: shenanigan.

It's been done. :)

One variation is to stake out a lower middle class suburb, say, Cheektowaga,  
New York. Cheektowaga was a solid blue collar town just east of Buffalo where  
the lawn ornament pickin's were ripe ... Virgin Mary statues in vertically  
inverted bathtubs ("Mary on the Half Shell", as it is locally known), pink  
flamingos, plastic deer and duck families, gnomes and the omnipresent wooden  
fat lady bending over the garden.  Swipe as many of these lawn ornaments as  
humanly possible.  Later that night, find some home in an upper middle class  
suburb (Amherst, New York in my example, probably Edina, Minnesota for the St.  
Olaf people) where lawn ornaments are rare, or even prohibited under local  
zoning ordinances.  Carefully set up your transplanted lawn zoo at its new  
home, drive by the place in the morning and see what results ...   

Feelings of guilt after Virgin Mary statue theft are to be expected and are  
perfectly normal. :)

--
   Dan Tasman                                       dtasman@dante.nmsu.edu
                                                     molson@rever.nmsu.edu
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   "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
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