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Stardate: March 4th 2011

You may have seen the April Fools Day 2005 prank which went off pretty damned well. Well March 2011 saw another opportunity.

Some tele-marketing companies have some serious updating of software to do. When I get 3 calls from the same company within 24 hours, action needs to be taken and just like AFD 2005, setting up clashing meetings was looking good. This time, instead of doing it in town, a long way out of town seemed more appropriate.

I chose 10AM the next day at a random address: 389 Austinville Rd, Austinville. I actually thought it was much further out than it turned out to be. Rural numbering works on how far it is from the start of the road and I thought 4km was the middle of a local farm. The serendipitous thing was that 389 (3.89km) was right in the middle of a bridge. At 0930 (the meeting was for 10AM) I drove out and placed a big 389 number on the rail in the middle of the bridge.

Just as I got there I noticed a black BMW wagon with very distinctive number plates pass me slowly. After I placed the sign and was heading back home there was that same BMW heading slowly back out...he was clearly looking for something...could it be? If so, he was early!

Number 1 son, who has a wicked sense of humour, wanted to be in on it so we both dressed up "business-like" with a plan to arrive separately at 1000.

0945 and second thoughts crept in. What if something went wrong? What if we got beaten up? What if...? At 0950 we went "What the fuck" and left for the rendevous.

I spotted another BMW wagon, silver this time, (do these guys have too much money?) driving slowly at ground zero and drove past, did a u-turn and returned to find him parked in the middle of the bridge, next to the sign. I stopped in a much safer spot on the other side, got out and looked bewildered.

It must have worked because he drove over and said

Him: Are you looking for 389?
Me: Yep, this is odd
Him: there doesn't seem to be any such number

Just then #1 son drove up and parked - safely - while silver beemer walks to the sign. He found something I hadn't seen. Someone had written on it "very funny" and there was this card on the railing:

Since we now had God's blessing, I felt a lot better.

Silver beemer came back and we had a conversation about people with a sense of humour. I steered the chat so we tried to figure out what was going on. Despite my hints, we couldn't. But we did agree that it was a beautiful location. I don't think he agreed it was a nice day for a country drive though.

Number 1 son did the fake "I am there, but no such address" phone call, pacing back and forth looking confused. We all came to the conclusion that we had been set up. I offered gentle "counselling" about tele-marketers but I don't think silver beemer heard me.

Oh, for what it is worth, he just called (March 4th 1135) for a second time, told me he is ex-SAS, and I better start running. I reckon he has put on a bit of weight since then, so despite my disabilities, I think I could outrun him.

A woman also called (at 1025 - she was late!) wondering where the house was. I told her what was going on and that there was someone else from her company who got hooked as well. I also offered her counselling; "perhaps you should talk to your tele-marketing company about this" - she hung up.

The guy who left the card called as well. Just like he wrote, he was genuinely amused by the whole thing. Yes, it was him in the black BMW :o). I always find it interesting how some people can choose to have fun in life and others want aggro. You're a good sport Brett T. Sorry you got caught up in it, though since you actually enjoyed it, maybe I'm not.

There are no photos, no videos, just another funny story.