Dimitri loves his Jeep the way some people love their firstborn. Nobody touches it. Nobody looks at it too long. So when I found it parked outside the school one morning, freshly back from the mechanic and washed to a shine, I knew I had to do something.
Achilles
The Jeep’s name is Achilles. Dimitri has owned a few Jeeps, but this one is the favourite, and it’s earned it: Achilles leads every convoy we run, taking on the obstacle first so the rest of us know it’s safe to follow. Bigger tyres, a winch, rock sliders, a remapped ECU, an upgraded transmission, a snorkel. The list goes on. Off-road, it is unstoppable. On tar it has its moments, but that’s owning a Jeep.
The setup
The power steering pump had gone, and Dimitri had been messaging the WhatsApp group all week about getting his car back and being ready for the next trip. That morning I dropped the kids at school and there it was, gleaming.
I took a short video. Posted it to the group. Welcomed Achilles home, and said I hoped Dimi would find what I’d done to it.
He was outside within minutes. He went over that car with a torch. He got his wife out to look. He got his best friend out to look. Three people, one Jeep, and nothing to find.
The long day
After the first search I let Amy in on it and asked her to play along. She was magnificent.
We call Dimi “the Angry Greek” for a reason, and you could feel the temperature rising from across town. He posted in the group that I’d done nothing, that he knew his car better than anyone alive. So I widened the net.
Every forty-five minutes, for the rest of the day, someone messaged him to ask whether he’d found it yet: his best friend, my dad, his mechanic, Eric, Frik, his receptionist, his own children. I sent video “clues” that meant nothing at all, just enough to keep him looking.
What I did
I did nothing to the car at all.
A friend did stick one very small sticker on the bumper, so that at the end of the day he’d find something and spend the evening wondering how he’d missed it.
By evening Dimitri’s nerves were gone, his day was ruined, and the rest of us had laughed more than we had in months. The best prank we’ve ever pulled on him, and it cost a sticker. The full thing is on YouTube.
