A Junior Airman Overstepped With A Superior — His Payback Was A Very Strange Treasure Hunt
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Sometimes, the best workplace pranks are the ones that require an absolutely unreasonable amount of creativity. In this case, a junior enlisted airman decided to tell a more senior coworker that he was in charge, despite the fact that someone else was actually in charge.
He learned a lesson he’ll never forget.
Read the full story below.
The journey for the treasure you seek.
This was years ago, but I love this story.
For those of y’all not in the military, the higher the E number the higher in rank. The highest ranking is in charge. Simple concept?
So I was part of a shop that refurbished aircraft.
When we couldn’t get one scheduled for a few weeks, we would take on atypical projects, most notably referring to golf carts that have been worked day in and day out.
On base we became known as Pimp My Golf Cart.
Then something absurd happened.
I (E4) was working someone task when an E2 told me to ignore the orders of our E6 and obey him as he felt he was in charge, “I am in charge of production.”
I just smiled and dismissed it and moved on.
He happened to be gone the next day and I noticed his pet project, his Chief’s golf cart he was doing as a brownie point project.
I also noticed the steering wheel was attached with a single bolt.
Someone taught him a lesson.
The devil horns came out.
A few minutes later the steering wheel was gone and there was a note where the wheel once was.
Please forgive as they retelling may be slightly off but it gets the point across.
Note 1. “If you hope to find the treasure you seek, the journey will be long and perilous. The first step is to look inside your own heart and realize you need to change.”
In the changing room, in his locker was the second note, “your journey will be long and fraught with danger. You must be brave for the next clue lies within the belly of the fire-breathing beast.”
In the grill there was the next clue, “I can only imagine the frustration is building, one would even believe you were smoking out.”
He was a smoker and the next clue was at the smoke pit.
It kept going.
For this clue to make sense we need the following background information. We refer to planes as birds.
Our hazmat area was cordoned off and had a mural that was a recycle symbol with a broken and fixed plane.
The hanger has small rooms that were basically standalone buildings painted white. Each had a ladder to the top.
“Your journey will be long. You must travel past the toxic swamps and the dying birds. Climb the highest snow capped mountain to find the lone orchid.”
On top of that room the next clue was mounted as an origami orchid.
The final clue read, “your journey is drawing near. The quest has tried you. All that is left is to return to where it all began and vent.”
It was ingenious.
Sitting on the golf cart where you can put your hands where the steering wheel once was, one can look over their right shoulder to see the air vent.
And if one cared to look further, one could see between the slits to see a steering wheel just behind them.
The steering wheel could be acquired without ever leaving the golf cart seat.
The true beauty was that I forgot I had an all day appointment the next day.
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A few weeks later I was talking to my boss and recounted the tale to which he said, “that’s why he was walking around all day with a piece of paper and a look on his face like he had lost his kitten.”
What did Reddit think?
A reader shares their thoughts.
Lol.
Yup.
Same.
Yup.
The clues sent the guy all over the place, forcing him to search his locker, investigate the grill, visit the smoke pit, cross the “toxic swamps,” and climb a metaphorical mountain just to find an origami orchid.
And after all that, the final clue sent him right back to where “the journey” started.
Talk about taking the scenic route to wisdom… Or just common sense.
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