A prank gone right

[clay]

I lived next to a rich guy in Montana on Flathead lake, he produced all of the Dean Martin Comedy Shows his name was “ Greg G” he built a giant log home on the lake and proceeded to buy a bunch of those carved wooden bears and put them on the dock fishing or in a tree climbing or standing on a rock with a salmon in its mouth, of course they were all custom made for him buy the best wooden bear chain saw carver in Montana.

One night after having a few drinks with Greg and hearing for the 100th time how rich he was, how good a friend he was of Dean’o, Sammy and Frank and most of all “how many priceless custom carved bears he had” I left his house in a bit of a huff and came back several hours later in my boat and stole the fishing bear he had at the end of his dock.

I heard about the bear theft for quite a while and of course Greg had each bear drilled and chained to something secure after the theft.

A buddy of mine was going to the Calgary Stamped Rodeo to ride bulls and I had him take the bear in his truck and take a photo of the bear in front of the Stampede Arena Sign, I sent the photo and a ransom note to another friend in Las Vegas and had him mail it to Greg in Montana. I still remember Greg running over to my cabin and showing me the photo and the ransom note “ cleverly cut from magazine letters” saying “If you want to see the bear again get $1 ???? (I put a couple of 0’s and a 5 and an 8 in the bottom of the envelope like they had fallen off the note) and wait for our next letter” Greg was in a panic trying to figure out how much money the thief’s were demanding he moved the 0’s and eight and five to different places behind the one trying to guess how much it was.

Several weeks later I took the bear with me on trip to Reno NV and took a photo of the bear under the “Biggest Little City in Nevada” sign. I mailed it from Spokane WA with another ransom note that said the bear was in Vail Colorado Skiing for the winter season and the ransom had doubled as the bear was costing a lot to pack around.

I hauled the bear to Seattle later that year and got a good photo of the bear at the Space Needle and of course I demanded that the ransom be paid in small bills nothing larger than a $10 but no amount was specified. Greg flew up my drive way a few days later with a duffel bag, the ransom note, photo and of course the bag was filled with $10 bills.

On New Year’s some of us got pretty right and snuck into Greg’s house (he went to Hollywood for the parties every New Year) and got a great photo of the bear sitting in a big old leather lounge chair with Greg’s custom built river stone fire place in the background. Of course the note said “Came buy for our $$$$ but you were out – all bets are off the bear is charcoal”.

I left the note and photo on his doorstep, a couple of days later Greg was at my house with the Sheriff they were hot on the trail of the thief and they had decided he was Canadian because he could not spell very good and Canadians are crazy. I was instructed to keep a sharp look out for cars or trucks with Canadian plates and to let the Sheriff know of any strange activity.

The next day I decided the joke had gone on too long and it needed to end, I took the bear out in my boat and put a life jacket on it and pushed it over the side. I raced home and made an criptic call to the sheriff and said that I had just seen a life vest floating in the lake and it looked like someone was in it, I gave them Finley point as a location and hung up. I sat at home and watched as the sheriffs boat and the fish and game boat came around the point. I watched them fish the bear from the water and head for Greg’s dock where the sheriff went and got Greg and they put the Bear back on the end of Greg’s dock. A couple of days later Greg called me and invited me to a welcome home party for an old friend. He had invited bunch of his closest friends to celebrate the return of “Traveling Bear” as he now called the wooden fishing bear.

Late that night Greg and I sat alone drinking our single malt talking about the adventures of Traveling Bear thats when I told Greg maybe he should not get any more carved bears because none of them could ever top “traveling bears” story. He agreed with me and for the rest of his life he told the traveling bear story to everyone and anyone even before he told them how rich he was or how he knew Dean’o, Sammy and Frank.

Clay

[Ed Curry]

I love a good caper!