It's wicKED Wednesday. Time for some tricks.

   We often talk about the treats of Halloween, but what of the tricks. The iconic phrase uttered by millions of children every year is saying just that, give me a treat or you will get tricked. When I was growing up, the trick was a huge part of Halloween especially for those sour people that turn the lights off and refuse to treat the children. Some were harmless, some were down right idiotic, but they were still associated with Halloween. Most of he tricks that used to give Halloween a bad name are things of the past, but you hear about them popping up every now and then. Below you will find a list of tricks that, honest to goodness, have actually happened in my sleepy little town as Halloween pranks.

  

I just want to go on the record that I in no way condone nor recommend the tricks below.  I feel that some of these tricks are hurtful to the true spirit of Halloween while others are just pranks pulled on friends. This is just a collection of pranks that I am familiar with over my lifetime. Under no circumstances are these to be recreated as many are dangerous and could seriously hurt somebody or get the offending party arrested. You have been warned!

• Witch Switching - Very old practice where a bundle of switches are tied together and thrown on a persons porch. This tell's the person that a prank is coming unless they change. 
• Corning - You take popped popcorn or feed corn kernels and throw them on the porch of the person that needs tricking. This is not only hard to clean up but the corned person will most likely wake up to the grating calls of a flock of crows eating and (pooping) on their porch.

• Egging - This is one of those tricks that is done all over, you just throw eggs at the house or car of the person to be tricked. This one is not such a nice thing to do as it can remove paint from a car. 
• Rolling a house- Again, this is pretty much universal. You throw rolls of toilet paper in the trees, bushes, even the house itself of the person you are tricking.

• Soaping windows - This can be done on house or vehicle. The prankster takes a bar of soap and proceeded to write words or designs on the glass.
• Greasing the pole - First, get your mind out of the gutter. The trickster covers a telephone pole, lamp post or banister in butter, grease, or oil. They then cover the pole with toilet paper. When the person being targeted reaches to pull the offending TP off, they have a messy surprise waiting for them. 
• Water Ballooning - Plain and simple. Chug water balloons at cars, houses, or people. 

• Ninja knocking - Run up to a door, knock, then run and or hide. This is often followed up with a water balloon as the door is answered or done right after rolling the house to see the reaction of the home owner. 
• Road Dummy - Placing a stuffed dummy on the side of the road, often to replicate a drunken person passed out on the road. As people slow down or get out and look, they are greeted with a volley of water balloons. 

• Road Block - This was a common occurrence on Halloween night in the distant past. Trees, limbs, trash etc were dragged across the road to block it. Often, when the driver stops to clear the road, they were subjected to water balloons or worse thrown at them. 
• Prank calling - With the invention of caller ID, this prank has pretty went the way of the dinosaurs. Heavy breathing, or sinister sayings to the unsuspecting party were the usual focus of this trick (this would also cover the pizza ordering prank as well).

• Car Leafing - The pranksters drive around collecting bagged leaves that home owners have put to the curb for pick up. They then take these leaves and completely cover the targets car. The car is often covered in syrup prior to this for added effect. 
• Handle greasing - Taking Vaseline or other gooey substance and putting it under the handle of a car door. This has also been done to wiper blades (I know from experience this sucks so bad and is really dangerous as you cannot see through the film). 
• Mailbox Baseball - Very destructive and immature. A group of miscreants drive around with a baseball bat. The driver gets close to a home owners mail box while the accomplice in back swings for a home run. (This happened to me a few years ago. After I replaced my mailbox, I would put a large rock in it at night. This paid off one morning when I found a broken bat laying at the base of my slightly scuffed mailbox).

• Ghost Shopping - Placing an unwanted object in the shopping cart of an unsuspecting shopper. This is usually something embarrasing such as condoms, or pregnancy tests. 
• Flaming bag of poo - A paper bag of dog poo is placed at the front door of the target's house. The bag is lit and the doorbell rang as the pranksters flee (ninja knocking). The target will most likely stomp out the fire and ... well you know.

• Trestle tricking - This is when the deviant climbs upon a train trestle that crosses over a road. They then drop water balloons, eggs, pumpkin (carved or whole)  even large rocks on the vehicles below. There have been a few instances when a dummy is "hung" from the trestle.
• Door Creaming - The deviant will squirt shaving cream or whip cream through the mail slot or dog door of the targets front door. There is another variant where the cream is squirted in a large paper bag, The top of the bag is squeezed flat and inserted under the crack of a door. The prankster then stomps the cream filled bag, dispersing the cream into the house of the target. 

• Leaf bombing - Home owners often rake large piles of leaves to the side of the road for pickup by the town maintenance crew. Evil pranksters drive their cars at high speed through the leaves, scattering them all over.  This prompts many home owners to bury cinder blocks of large rocks in their leaves to prank the prankster. 
• Pet shaving/painting - This is one I absolutely will not abide by, but I hear of this type or terrible thing happening from time to time.  The evil doers grab a friendly dog or cat and proceed to shave it with an electric razor or paint/dyes are used to color the poor pet. Often rude words are painted/shaved into the animal. 

• Cow Tipping - Cows lock their knees at night to sleep standing up. Tricksters sneak up on the sleeping animal and tip them over on their side.
• Pooped Purses - The deviants get their hands on a large amount of used purses. They fill them with cow dung and leave them on the side of the road or in public places. They often video their victims grabbing the purses and making off with the "goods". There is also a lesser offending variation where a quarter is super glued to the sidewalk. 
• Fountain Foaming - Putting detergent into a public fountain which makes a tremendous amount of foam. (I can recall a fountain at the local park pushing huge walls of foam into the street during Halloween).

• Tailpipe tater- Stuffing a potato in the tailpipe of an unsuspecting victims car. This usually causes a huge backfire as the vehicle starts. (Large whistles have also been duct taped to tailpipes for a horrific screeching sound as the they start).
• Plate swapping - The creative trickster takes some poster board and makes a duplicate licence plate. The plate is then affixed over the targets real plate with duct tape. Usually some degrading message is created for the newly personalized tag such as "IMHORNY", "IEATPOO", or "ISTINK".

• Ice Cube Treats - One of the most heinous crimes to do on a trick or treater and one that will bring guaranteed retribution. The evil person just drops a few ice cubes into the TOTs bag from a bowl. The child thinks he has a treat from the weight and sound the cube made and walks away as the cubes melt. This could ruin the candy or melt the bag the treats are carried with if it is paper. (This happened to me once when I was eight. Hell hath no furry like a trick or treater scorned!) 
• Snipe Hunting - A clueless target is told they are going to help catch a bunch of snipes which are small little hamster like creatures. They are told the Snipes are harmless and can be sold to pet stores for $25 bucks each but they are hard to get as they live deep in the woods and only come out at night. The target is given a sack or a box to hold open as the pranksters go off to "run the snipes" at the trap so they can scoop them up. The pranksters then leave the poor person holding a bag or box in the deep dark woods, waiting for snipes that never come. 

• Porch swapping - take two houses and completely swap their outdoor furniture with each other.
• Sprinkler Sabotage - Alter the timer on a home owners sprinkler system to go off as they are walking to their car early in the morning.

• Decoration swap- Moving a persons Fall/Halloween decor around or turning it upside down.
• Ditch Witching - Hiding under a pile of leaves in a ditch waiting for a victim to pass by, then leaping out to scare them.
• Window Haunting - Dressing up as a ghost etc, then standing in plain view of a window until the occupants of the house see you.

• Invisible rope - Two pranksters wait on opposite sides of a road. When a vehicle approaches, they "mime" like they are pulling a rope or string tight across the road. (there is a variant to this where the offenders run and hide when a vehicle approaches like they are up to no good, leaving the driver to wonder what is up)

    I have probably forgotten a few but that's a good start. Have any of you ever had any of the pranks mentioned above pulled on you? Have you ever pulled one yourself? I would like to know. I hope you all have a Halloween full of treats and absolutely no tricks... especially the ones I have just mentioned.