Barney Gets Pranked

This afternoon when Barney walked into Area 51 he discovered a sheet of paper sitting square in the middle of his technical workbench. It was a letter. Barney read it, and was instantly confused. Slightly alarmed too. He handed it to me and asked me to read it. Reluctantly I took the piece of paper from him and sat down. The letter was from someone claiming to be in upper management and I could tell from the author's name he probably didn't exist. It was too screwy. The gist of it was supposedly management wanted Barney to take a business trip back east on the company dime. It was totally vague as to the reason for this trip. His flight itinerary was nuts. Seven or eight connecting flights to reach his final destination. If Barney had any questions there was a 1-800 number he could call. I dialed the number and pressed #7. Then I heard a duck quacking.

Barney was being set up for a practical joke. Shoelaces must have been behind this. I went along with it and told Barney the whole thing seemed legit, he should pack his suitcase. I suggested he call that 1-800 number and get confirmation on his business trip. Barney dialed it and listened. When he hung up the phone he said, "Hey guy all I hear is someone say wah wah. What that mean? He re-read the letter and said, "There's too many numbers." I shrugged my shoulders and went back to work. He wouldn't let it go though, so he took the letter to one of our supervisors to ask him about it.

Last week Shoelaces kept calling our phone extension in Area 51 in disguise. He made himself sound like a cartoon character and asked to speak with Barney. The phone Shoelaces was using to make his prank calls is just down our main aisle through the production area. You can practically see it from where we sit. Anyway Barney would pick up the phone and start arguing with the person on the other end about firewood for sale. Week before that he was arguing with Shoelaces over an acoustic guitar.

Shoelaces would say "I saw your ad in the newspaper for firewood I want to buy it."
"Hey guy I got no firewood. You have wrong person."
"You're Barney right?"
"Yes."
"And your number is 555-1212 right?"
"Yes."
"Then I have the right person don't I stupid. So how's about that firewood?"
Barney spent a good ten minutes arguing with Shoelaces while we all quietly laughed. He sure gets mad fast.