I once knew a guy who, as a kid in the 70s, would take high-test fishing line and stretch it between two trashcans (this was back when they were made of metal). They’d do this just before the street lights came on and they needed to get home. So the dads would be coming home from work in the low light and then suddenly WHAM! they’d have two trashcans smash into the rear of the car. They’d yell and curse in the street, looking for whoever did it.
Then one day a cop comes by and it happens to him. He goes to every house and informs all the families that this is dangerous, that if someone on a motorcycle came through, they could be killed.
What my friend and his buddies heard was “use something more visible than fishing line.” So they started using yellow twine. He said this turned out to be funnier because you’d hear the brakes squeal before you’d hear the trashcans hit the sides of the car.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 days ago
Our neighborhood had distinctive split rail fences around all the front yards, and one time, after a big snow storm, we wrapped toilet paper back and forth across the street, using the fence uprights as supports. To a driver, it looked like someone had built a wall of snow across the street.
Cars would recognize the barrier too late, hit their brakes and skid right through it. I’m sure they thought they would hit a solid wall, but then it would just silently “explode,” and the presumably shaken driver would travel on, and we’d run out and wrap the toilet paper back and forth for the next victim.
This was back in the 70s, so no method of filming it, but it would have been cool.
It was harmless, but a lot of work setting up again and again, and it would only work on the perfect sunny snow day, so we never got the chance to do it again.