Why fork a yard

Other pranks popular with teens and tweens who have time on their hands and mischief in their hearts include Saran-wrapping cars and covering garage doors with Post-It notes. But forking, while not really new, seems the most bizarre and least expected trick to play on a friend, neighbor or even enemy much riskier -- they're more likely to charge vandalism.

On those long summer days in the pre-Internet world, bored kids had to dream up their own shenanigans, and word spread a lot more slowly to would-be copycats. Now you can find not only dozens of videos online of forked yards and their owners' reactions, but how-to advice.

Hint: Stick the plastic forks in handle down -- less breakage that way -- then coat them with Vaseline so they're harder to pull out of the ground. Adults get in on the forking action, too. For a friend's 40th birthday, Debbie Kytola of Owatonna, Minn.

Compared with TPing, forking is more rewarding for perpetrators because the victims are usually more baffled. And as pranks go, forking isn't as hard on the receiver as egging or shaving cream, which can wreck a paint job or stain a driveway, nor as tough to clean up as a house and trees covered in hundreds of yards of toilet paper.

On a recent forking expedition, a group of teens in Eden Prairie were surprised to find that the clerk at Walgreen's was onto them when they plunked down a few hundred forks and a tub of Vaseline on the counter. The clerk asked for an ID "in case anything was reported," said year-old Owen Sweeney of Chanhassen, a forker who admits to at least intermediate-level experience. Could be that the group's other purchases -- toilet paper and shaving cream -- were the tip-off.

Not everyone is amused by forking. The Eden Prairie Police Department has received a couple of calls regarding yard forking incidents within the past year, said spokeswoman Katie Beal. Worst-case scenario for perps caught fork-handed? Probably a disorderly conduct charge, she said, and anyone under 18 out after curfew could be charged with that as well. Urban Dictionary describes Forked as "When you buy 4 packs of forks, and then go to someone's house who you hate late at night. Then, you put all the forks into the ground with the handle out.

When they wake up, they will have 2, forks in their front yard that they will have to pick out - one-by-one - by hand". According to the detailed instructions on the bastion of truth that is Prankhome. Duly noted Prankhome. The basic idea is putting numerous plastic forks, NOT metal, prongs facing upwards, spread across someone, or numerous neighbor's lawns.

Matt Besser [1] Profile Link. Samuel Bester [1] Profile Link. Mark Borkowski [7] Profile Link. Andrew Boyd [11] Profile Link. Albert Cahn [1] Profile.

Erin Clermont [2] Profile Link. Dino D'Annibale [4] Profile. Margaret Engel [1] Profile Link. Ron English [6] Profile Link. Homer Fink [3] Profile Link. Rose Fox [21] Profile Link. Doug Harvey [2] Profile Link. Mike Ibanez [6] Profile Link. Tim Jackson [14] Profile Link. Paul Krassner [7] Profile Link. Marcy LaViollette [23] Profile Link. Steve Lambert [15] Profile Link. John Lundberg [7] Profile Link. Beauvais Lyons [2] Profile Link. Norm Magnusson [4] Profile Link. Steffani Martin [1] Profile.

Jorge Luis Marzo [7] Profile Link.