“Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” ―Phaedrus.
Things aren’t always what they seem. Especially at first sight. Some of the most embarrassing things that happen in our lives are of the “It’s now what it looks like!” variety. Some are cringe-worthy and some are utterly hilarious, but all are quite embarrassing and make the cheeks go rosy. So, let’s laugh together as we enjoy the best stories people have shared on the internet about their worst “This isn’t what it looks like” moments.
42. Buying a Belt
Back in high school, I used to have a Triforce (from The Legend of Zelda) belt buckle. Upon seeing it, my choir teacher rolled up his sleeve and showed me a Triforce tattoo on his upper arm—we were in his office at the time, before class started. I didn't really like the belt buckle anyway—the point of the Triforce stabbed me in the stomach when I bent over—so I offered to sell it to him for $10.
He agreed, so I started taking off my belt so I could give him the buckle. Just then, our choreographer walked into me taking off my belt and my teacher holding a $10 bill. After the explanation and the initial shock subsided, we laughed it off; but it is easily my weirdest experience with a teacher.
41. Homemade Headset
Years ago, a friend and I were playing on the Xbox 360, but his headset was broken. The headband part had snapped in half, and he didn't have a way to hold the earpiece and mic to his head.
After a few minutes, he invented a fix and we kept playing. Some time goes by, and then I hear him say "WAIT, I CAN EXPLAIN" before I hear the muffled sounds of him removing the mic and leaving the room.
To fix the headset problem, he had put the earpiece and mic up to his face, and then put on a fairly tight ski mask to hold them there. He wore glasses, so the glasses were smashed in there too. It was also August and hot, so he wasn't wearing a shirt.
His dad had walked in to tell him lunch was ready and saw his sweaty, shirtless son wearing a ski mask and yelling weird profanity at a game, and had promptly turned around and left.
Pixnio
40. Adopted Child
I was at the store with my two-year-old son. He's adopted and is a different race than I am.
We were leaving and he wanted to play with the claw machine. I told him that we didn't have time and that he needed to come hold my hand. He protested and refused to leave the crane. I walked over and picked him up to carry him out of the store. He, being a toddler, started throwing a fit and saying things like, "Put me down" and "You're not nice."
We got a lot of looks and I realized after putting him in the car that a white man carrying a screaming brown toddler out of the store probably looks like a kidnapping.
39. The Importance of Privacy
When I was a child (around 11 or 12), I liked to play pranks on my siblings. One day, my sister had her radio on while cleaning her room. I decided to sneak around the house, reach through the window, and turn off her music. As I was standing outside the window, waiting for her to turn her back, my dad came around the house—I assume he saw me go around and followed to see what I was up to. He thought I was being a Peeping Tom and was trying to see my sister naked. I found that one out the hard way later that night.
He and my stepmom mentioned that they were going into town for fuel and drinks, so I decided to hide in the back of the car and scare them when they got in. As they were getting in the car, I heard my name, and it was my dad telling my stepmom that he had caught me peeping. In shock of those accusations, I didn't immediately jump up and scare them, as planned. I weighed my options until the car was a few miles down the road (they were talking about me the whole time), then I finally decided to jump up. The car swerved off the road and almost crashed.
They didn't believe me when I tried to explain myself. I was given a strong lecture on privacy, and my dad never really trusted me after that.
38. Late Night Burial
A very long time ago, I was living at my parent's house. I came home after work and found a very large dead rat caught in a trap. I guess we were having a rat problem, rural living problems.
Not wanting to have my little sister wake up to this before her Saturday morning cartoons—told you it was long ago—I went outside to bury it, with a shovel, at 2:00 am, in the fog, wearing a trench coat.
37. Spilling the Kool-Aid
When I was around 14 or 15 my parents had a strict no boyfriend policy. They worked days and during the summer I would stay home alone by myself.
Well, I was hanging out with one of my friends and her new boyfriend. He spilled Kool-Aid all over his pants and was freaking out because he had a job interview later that day, and was way too far from home to just go home and change so I said I’ll just throw them in my washer, no big deal. Later, as I was pulling them out of my dryer and bringing them to him upstairs, I see my dad pull in the driveway. So my friend has the jeans in his hands and I’m like “Go out back, hurry!!!”
It also turned out to be trash day so as my dad is pulling the trash can to the backyard, my friend and I are running to the back door and just as he turns the corner, he sees him my friend out of my back door, pulling his pants on, and just stops and stares at us.
It took a while to get him to believe us. But here we are, 11 years later, and my friends are now married and we’re all pretty close. My dad still brings that story up jokingly.
36. Cat Love
My cat likes to sit on my chest when I'm laying out on the sofa, and does his usual thing of nudging my face and wiping his cat drool all over me in some sort of equal display of affection and domination.
As he was doing this, my wife came home and walked into the front room. Both myself and my cat whip our heads around to the door where she's standing and I proclaimed "It's not what it looks like!"
She left the room in fits of laughter.
35. Zits in the Wrong Places
Once when I was like 13, my mom walked in on me sitting with my pants down on the bed and legs spread. She quickly backed out and slammed the door.
I was popping a zit on the inside of my thigh.
34. They Call Him the Streak
I used to do night shifts at a psych hospital. For a long time, we had a guy who was being treated with lithium. It helped curb his manic behavior, but it also messed him up for a while, to the point that he resembled an Alzheimer's patient. He could hardly get himself dressed, seemed totally unaware of his surroundings, and was barely coherent as he jabbered away at you, convinced you were an old friend of his or a relative.
One night he was up late wandering around, which was fine as he was quiet and went straight to bed when he got tired. Except tonight he started taking his pants off. I guided him to his room and said he could have his pants off in there, but not on the unit. Moments later he came back out, pants around his ankles. I helped him get them back up, reminded him of the pants rule, and went back to my seat. He started taking them off again, I told him to get them back up, rinse and repeat.
At one point he got them down really fast, and brought his underwear with them. By the time I got over to him they were off of his feet. I knew he couldn't get them back on himself, so I tried getting him into his room, with no luck. I tried to convince him to just sit down at least, but that wasn't getting through either. I settled for just kneeling and tapping his calves to get him to lift his foot and putting them on that way. The charge nurse I was working with wasn't present for this entire scenario, up to this moment, when he walked onto the unit with the night supervisor, who saw me on my knees in front of a male patient who was naked from the waist down. Not a good look. Thankfully, I didn't need to explain myself as I had a solid reputation, and this guy was known for randomly undressing and needing help to get re-dressed.
33. Rocking the Van
I was moving house and my friend was helping me move furniture. We got locked in the back of the moving van so we started kicking the door and attempted to push it open, but from the outside it looked like people were doing the deed in the back of the van as it was swaying about.
We eventually got out and there was a bunch of kids laughing at us, so I asked my girlfriend, who was standing outside, what the kids were laughing at. Her reply was "Were you two shagging in the back of the van? Certainly looked like it."
32. The Mac Daddy
I own a restaurant. I was having a talk with one of my friends saying that I never would sleep with any of my employees. It's not good practice. He was skeptical.
Within the next 30 minutes, three of my female employees came up to me while my friend was still there and said these lines:
Girl 1: "Stop cheating on me" (as she comes up and hugs me).
Girl 2: "Did you find my skirt at your apartment?"
Girl 3: "I'm still coming over tonight, right?"
Now my friend is looking at me like I'm both a liar and the ultimate Romeo.
The real situation is, I'm friends with all these girls. The first girl was making a joke that I'm cheating on her because when she couldn't go to a bookstore one day, I invited someone else instead.
The next girl slept in my guest bedroom on Halloween—with like three other girls—because they had been drinking. Her Halloween costume skirt that she changed out of is still lost.
The last girl has a 45-minute commute to work every day, she was going to sleep at my place that night so she didn't have to drive home just to come back early in the morning
He still doesn't believe me and thinks I'm a god.
31. Zoning Out
As a teenager, I went to a Christian group work camp where we would do house maintenance for low income folks. In the rec room during free time, a pair of teenage boys shyly confessed their love for each other and embraced tearfully. They saw me staring at them with a hard, angry face—this was over ten years ago in an area that was not open-minded. They withered under my judgmental look and snuck off.
In reality, I was just totally zoned out and thinking about something totally different—I have an angry face when I'm thinking—and didn't put together what happened until after they left.
30. A Whole Year of Awkwardness
Not in the moment, but definitely an "it's not what it looks like."
So ever since my preteens, I've had overactive sweat glands. I can walk to the store for five minutes and be covered in sweat from head to toe. Which, unfortunately, means lots of body moisture and mild jock itch.
Scene: Eighth grade. Science teacher asks to see me after class. He tells me that some of the girls have approached him out of concern for some "behavior" of mine. He then proceeded to ask me if I've ever masturbated in class.
The behavior: Superficially scratching the groin area of my pants.
Fast forward a few months later: I'm taking the bus home. A female classmate who I dislike ends up asking me the same thing, only more awkwardly.
Middle school was a struggle.
29. The Birds and the Bees
A few years ago I was at a friend’s BBQ with about 20 adults and eight kids. My daughter was there along with three other girls all around her age—eight years old. They were all sharing a bedroom and about to go to sleep and they asked me for a bedtime story.
Not being able to think of one, I told them how the solar system was formed using different balls in the room. Once I had done my Astronomy 101 they started asking all types of questions on all different topics. They said I was great because I explained everything well and their parents didn't.
Then one girl asked about the birds and the bees. I quickly replied that they need to talk with their parents about that, but they didn't stop. Four eight-year-old girls started chanting the word sex at me, quite scarily. I said I couldn't answer that and said goodnight.
I went back out to the party grabbed a beer and forgot about my embarrassing situation. I'm there talking to a couple of friends when I hear the chant again, getting louder and louder.
They continue chanting as they run up to me, grab my hands trying to pull me inside. Wow, this doesn't look good. Three sets of parents run up and grab their kids and take them off to different corners of the yard asking them what's going on.
Luckily they were all level-headed and we had a laugh about it, but I was sure I was about to go onto some sort of list. On the bright side, I haven't been asked to babysit since.
28. You Look Different With Clothes On
I was a swim coach for teenage high school girls when I was in my mid-twenties. The job often required getting in the pool, demonstrating swim strokes, etc.
I was at the mall, and I saw one of my students walking toward me with her parents. I said hello to her twice before she noticed me, and once she realized who I was she said "Oh hey, I didn't recognize you with all of your clothes on!"
27. The Office Myth Begins
One time I was helping out my girlfriend in her office at the building where we both worked. While she typed away, I was under her desk—one of those table things with no sides—fumbling with Ethernet cables. A gaggle of office gossips came in to talk to my girlfriend, and from the conversation, I realized they had no idea I was under there. Eventually, one of them saw me, and I emerged, and they were all...unduly delighted. And thus, a myth was born.
26. A Whole Cow
Probably that time I helped my little bro carry an entire cow skeleton down our neighbor's laneway to take it home. He'd found it up in the forest and, being obsessed with animal bones, that was the quickest way to get it home...unfortunately, the neighbors drove up the laneway at the same time and there we were with multiple bags overflowing with pretty large bones. Awkward. We just gave 'em a little wave and continued on…
25. Messy Hair
This guy I started seeing came into my bar to hang out with me while I worked, and we ended up leaving for about 20 minutes to grab some food down the street. It was a super hot day, so we were both already sweaty and I was sun burnt from the previous day. He playfully roughed up my hair while we were walking, but I didn't realize how much. So we get back and the only customers at the bar were my regulars and they're all just giving me like "Way to go!" looks after he left and kept dropping sly remarks.
It wasn't until I looked in the mirror and saw how disheveled I looked that I realized they thought we were out in my car having sex. I ran out mortified and they still don't let me live it down to this day.
24. Duct Tape Threat
Living in military dorms, I had two male friends over for dinner. We hung out in my room and left the door open, for our safety. Well, we got to wrestling and they both tickled me mercilessly. One of the guys grabbed some duct tape and threatened to tape me. Cue my roommate walking in. Awkward.
23. A Year of Gossip
When I was around 18, I was studying far from home in a boarding school, and the rooms were girls only.
I was—and still am—close friends with a girl who loved to hug and to tease people. So one time we were walking together chatting about random stuff and she starts to explain something to me while putting her arm around my shoulder. After a few seconds she obviously feels it's time to make fun of me. I don't remember what she said but I decided to play along and to look offended so I quickly pushed her away.
Just at that moment, another girl was entering the corridor and saw what looked like a couple quickly moving away from each other in order to hide something.
There was a lot of gossip after that.
22. Inside Voice/Outside Voice
I was looking at a thrift store when I was a teenager and went into the little boy's section—I'm a girl—to check out their T-shirts. There were tons with goofy sayings and I exclaimed, "I LOVE little boys!" to which a mother pulled her young son away from me.
21. Creeper at the Playground
I used to take my kids to different playgrounds as they were growing up. Often times I'd be out there with them, chasing them, being the random monster/dragon/antagonist while they run away and then eventually turn around and chase me back. Inevitably, since the rest of the parents were on their iPhones or doing anything but interacting with their kids, I'd end up with a collection who wanted to join in the fun.
It was all going well until they said they wanted to play "Minecraft."
So as a group of kids suddenly scatter from where I am standing yelling "Ah! Run away from the Creeper! Ahhh!" I look up to see a line of parents suddenly jostled back into consciousness with absolutely no friggin’ context whatsoever.
20. It’s Consensual
It was my third day at my new office job. When I washed my hands my pants touched the countertop, which was covered with water. Naturally, I now look like I peed my pants and had a giant six-inch soaked area around my crotch. I couldn't walk around with that, so I thought to use the hand dryer.
However, the hand dryer was the type that you stick your hands in rather under. So I line up and basically mount this hand dryer, like I am looking for a good time. I look at myself in the mirror and as I start thinking "This won't look good if..." and of course, the CIO walks in before I could finish the thought and react.
He looks at me and in deadpan voice says "Do I need to call HR?" to which I responded "No, it's consensual." We had a good laugh about it and he never let me forget that moment!
19. Awkward Moments With Grandma
I visited my grandmother and she asked me to clean out my old closet. I’d lived there for two or three years and left some stuff behind. So I was going through my old notebooks, clothes, and random stuff when I came across some incense sticks. I decided to burn one. It didn't smell that great and made a lot of smoke, so I went to open a window. At that moment granny came in because she could smell it from the corridor.
I still don't know why I panicked and said I couldn't smell anything. I was standing near the window and there were clouds of smoke.
18. Correction Gone Wrong
More of a "This isn't what it sounds like"...
A family we were close to had just moved to the US from India. They had a young daughter, like five years old, who was still learning English. One day, she fell down the stairs while playing outside. She ran in crying and saying "The stairs hit me!" Once she calmed down, her dad corrected her and said "No, no. You mean to say 'I fell down the stairs.'"
A few days later, my dad was showing them the grocery store. In the checkout line, the cashier saw the girl's bruised-up legs and asked what happened. The daughter responded with "What did you tell me to say, dad? Oh right! I fell down the stairs."
He had a fun time explaining that to the police.
17. Washing the Clothes
I was 16 and my parents just left the house for a dinner out. I had to do laundry, so I started right after they left to get it done as early as possible.
As I'm filling the machine I notice a stain on my shirt, so I put it with the rest of the clothes. I also look at my pants and decide to add them as well along with my socks and...screw it my underwear as well.
So I'm butt naked and I start the machine. I rush to the stairs to get to my room and dress up and that's when the front door—which is right where the stairs are—opens and I freeze.
My dad comes in and sees me naked. We both aren't moving a few seconds and then he laughs, grabs his wallet on the table and says: "So THAT'S what you are doing while we aren't here?" He then closes the door while giggling.
I'm there still in shock and red as a beet. I rush to dress and call my parents on my mother's cell phone to tell them it's not what they think as they are just laughing their butts off.
16. Not What the Look Looks Like
I used to work security/reception at my company, so I greeted everyone when they came in the door and made sure they were wearing their security badge. You could either wear your badge on a lanyard around your neck or on a retractable belt clip.
So I've been doing this job for like two years when I'm outside talking to some of the girls that work on the second floor. One of them just flat out asks me why I always check out women when they come in to visit.
Excuse me?
Turns out, there was a lot of talk about how I was "looking women up and down" when they came through the door. Well, I was looking everyone up and down. I would look at their chest first and if there was no badge there, my eyes would move to their belt. It was kind of my job!
15. Sniffing in Public
I will preface this by saying that a couple of weeks prior to this, my wife had bought some frilly underwear on clearance sale, and a couple of bananas to eat on the way to work. I was chilling in the car at the store while she went in when I smelled nasty over-ripe bananas. I reached into the backseat and pulled out the bag that had been forgotten back there. I take the underwear out of the bag and tie the bag with the old bananas up, dog poo style. No big deal, right?
For whatever reason, my brain goes “I wonder if these brand new underwear now reek of old squishy banana?” I put them to my nose and take a big whiff—right as a sweet old lady pulls into the parking spot in front of our car. She looks at me, panties pressed into my nose inhaling deeply, her eyes go wide with shock, and visibly shaking, she pulls back out of the spot and drives away. Literally leaves. Shopping trip canceled. I know I had to look like some kind of degenerate pervert on a public binge, but it wasn't what it looked like.
14. Bad Chris vs. Good Chris
My friend and I were sitting at lunch complaining about this Chris guy who was in our class and who was an absolute jerk. Really not a nice human being.
At one point I turned around and saw another Chris, an absolute sweetheart, sitting nearby looking absolutely crushed. Took five minutes to convince him that we were not talking about him. I felt so bad though.
13. Following the Neighbor
I went to my friend's house last night and came back around 12:30 am. To set some context, my friend lives about an hour away from me, on the opposite side of the city. When I was driving back home afterward, this car cut me off on the on-ramp, and I honked at them.
I then turned back up the music, and pretty much drove home on autopilot, but when I got off the freeway at my exit, I realized that the same car that cut me off was in front of me. After that, I got kind of curious, because it had been about 30 minutes since the incident, and we'd changed freeways twice already. I got a little bit worried that they'd think I was following them home, but I didn't think too much of it—until the car started going up the same side streets I did.
Eventually, I realized that my 16-year-old neighbor who had just learned how to drive was the one who cut me off, and she and her friends were probably now petrified that some lunatic was following them home. I guess she'd called her parents in the meantime because she pulled into her driveway and the house lights were all lit up, and her dad—a huge guy—was standing outside with a baseball bat. I then pulled into my own garage and apologized for scaring them and it was all chill after that.
12. Grabbing Beers for Dad
I put my dad in this situation when I was a kid. Probably around 10 years old or so.
For context, my dad rarely drank in front of us growing up, but would occasionally have a beer. As parents often do, he would have me go get it for him if we were in the same room. I was a lazy kid and didn't want to miss whatever we were watching on TV so I often found this to be an annoyance but pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
So one day he's chatting with a couple coworkers and I'm there. They were joking around about something and he turns to me and asks "You like me, right?" I answer back "Yeah, except for when you drink beer."
Adult me facepalms every time I think about that. My dad is awesome.
11. Coming of Age
I work as a manager at a grocery store. Some cashiers aren’t old enough to scan alcohol so I have to do it for them. I made a comment to a female cashier after the fourth time she called me over one day—I said: “I can’t wait until you’re 19.” Took me a few seconds to realize what I said, in front of customers.
10. Chapstick Quest
Oh man. Sitting at a traffic light when I was 18 years old. I wanted to get something out of my pocket—Chapstick, I think—and I was wearing jeans that, when sitting, might as well have locked pockets. I keep my eyes forward so I can see if the light turns green, while I dig into my pocket. I have to kind of thrust my hips upwards and move a bit to reach my hand fully into my jeans.
During my gyrating pocket quest, I make eye contact with a girl crossing the crosswalk—I’m a guy. A look of horror crosses her face and she says something to her friend. The other girl gives me a disgusted look as well and they hurry across the crosswalk. I’m sure it looked bad from their perspective.
9. A Hard One for Parents to Buy
I locked my keys in the boot of my car but my back seats fold down so I was climbing through the back of the seat and a friend was sitting in the back seat on the opposite side, laughing and calling me an idiot for locking them in the boot for the second time that day. I finally got them and as I was kinda shimmying backward out of the hole, I passed the keys back through to my friend, he leaned over me to grab them, I got snagged on something so my boobs fell out of my shirt, I sat up and both my parents are standing at the window looking horrified.
They came out as I was passing back the keys so all they saw was like, my mate leaning over me while my butt was in the air and then I sat up and my boobs were flying everywhere.
We tried to explain but somehow I don’t think they bought it.
8. How Would That Work
When I was like 14, I wanted to work out but couldn't go to a gym or run outside or anything. For some reason I thought it would be good to use a can of green beans as a weight. I kept the can in my sock drawer, because I didn't want to go to the kitchen every time I wanted to lift weights.
One day I come home from school and my mother is standing at the doorway to my bedroom with a look in her face. She is holding the can of green beans and asks me if I'm using it to do drugs. I still laugh when I think of this.
7. Taking Pictures of Kids
I flew into the town where I was born and drove past the first house I lived in. I was too young to remember it, but thought I’d take some pics for Mum and Dad.
Aw, how cute, a bunch of kids was playing in the front yard, my oldies will love that one of their first houses is still filled with happiness.
Then the kids all looked at me, screamed and ran inside.
I’m a 38-year-old bearded, bald dude, stopped outside their house, with the window down taking pictures of them playing.
Oh no! With some quick thinking I salvaged the situation by spinning the wheels and driving off. Fail.
6. Honey, It Was Just a Prank
“Honey, what's this?”
We are in my car when my girlfriend holds up a filled prophylactic that she found on the back seat. That certainly wasn't what it looked like, as I instantly know my co-worker has pulled a prank on me—we pull stunts like this all the time, and you could just wait for someone to go too far—like, this far.
Luckily, my girlfriend—now my wife—doesn't go bananas on me, and just asks me what is going on. I pull over, tell her it's a prank and ask her to smell the condom—which she does because she trusts me. She instantly smells that it's just some cleaning liquid mixed with soap.
We spend the rest of the ride a) in amazement of how much it resembled gunk and b) thinking of the best possible way of getting back at him. Which I did. Very much so. But this was a big “it's not what it looks like” moment.
5. Rip Van Winkle, Jr.
When I was a kid who still slept in my parents' bedroom—it was a much smaller house—one night I got upset with my parents for some reason that I can't remember, and decided to go to the bedroom and lock the door as a cry for attention.
I ended up falling asleep, and I'm a deep sleeper, so when my mother tried to come in and failed, she started calling out to me to open the door. My unresponsiveness made her panic, and she called for my dad and sisters to try and find a way through to me, thinking that something had happened—I think we had lost the key to the door at some point.
One fist-sized hole in the door later, my parents shook me awake and checked all over me to find out if anything was wrong with me, before realizing that I was just innocently sleeping through the entire hubbub of neighbors pounding on the balcony window right behind my mattress, to my dad punching a hole in the bedroom door.
4. One Hot Summer Day
Alright, as a student, when I visited my hometown I got to visit my grandma before leaving back to university and grandma always had small chocolates for people visiting her. Her grandchildren would get more than one usually. As I was leaving the house, she gave me one more to have it during the travel back home.
I ate a piece of chocolate while loading my stuff in the car and I put the small chocolate in my back pocket, right before I say goodbye to my parents. It was a hot day at the end of the summer.
A bit before the exit to the highway I was taking, I stopped at a traffic light and realized that the chocolate between my butt and my car seat was not a good idea, so I'm reaching for it. Chocolate already melted and package already open made my left hand full of melted chocolate.
Following the loud "well, darn," I realize that the girl in the car next to me just saw a guy reaching his butt and bringing his hand up again full of a brown unknown sticky substance.
The look on her face was totally worth it. Only bad thing is that melted chocolate won't go away only with tissues.
3. Not Those Groans
When my husband and I first started dating, he was staying at a friend's house. We were quietly watching TV in his room when he got a really bad charley horse and began groaning and crying out. All of a sudden, his friend's TV from the other room got really, really loud as he cranked up the volume very quickly.
I promise you, Doug, it wasn't what it sounded like.
2. Pesky Ads
One time during my teens, I was using my grandparents' computer to look up video game cheat codes. I was worried they might disapprove that I was using cheats, so when my grandfather walked into the room, I quickly minimized the window and turned around to say hello and ask what he needed.
His response: "Oh nothing important, I'll just come back later." He almost seemed to be rushing out.
I turned back to the computer screen in confusion, to see that minimizing the window had revealed a pornographic pop-up ad hiding in the background. I was super embarrassed. He never mentioned it, though.
1. Having a Grand Old Time
Years ago, my good friend landed his first girlfriend and was pretty psyched about it. He was also hanging on for dear life with this girl and would rarely bring her around the rest of his friends. This kinda annoyed us, so we purposefully tried to embarrass him one time.
His family never locked the house so it was natural for any of his friends to let ourselves in. He would come home and one of us would be there, watching TV or something. No knock policy. We took advantage of this while he was out with his girlfriend one night and also while his parents were out of town.
We let ourselves in, went to the basement and dug up old Halloween costumes they had over the years. An astronaut costume, a crayon, a caveman, a donkey, and a Hulk Hogan costume. Then we hid around the room and waited until he got home.
Eventually we hear the door open and everyone is tickled to death that he's going to come downstairs and see all of us in these ridiculous costumes. The door to the room opens and we hear footsteps coming downstairs. The lights turn on and:
It's his grandparents.
They were checking on the house, just making sure nothing was left on while the parents were on vacation and they saw all of us standing there in these costumes. It was awkward for a good 10 seconds until someone tried to explain we were pranking their grandson before he got home.
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