When Johnny Riche, vice president of product development at Rockwell Time, plotted this year’s April Fool’s vengeance, he took no shortcut in coming up with the perfect crime to get back at his buddy “Diesel Dave” and the fun-loving crew at Diesel Power Gear for last year’s prank. Unfortunately, a spy within Riche’s ranks informed the enemy of the forthcoming ambush, and the stage was set for laughs.
A bit of backstory: back in 2013, Riche was the hapless victim of severe secondhand smoke when the guys at Diesel Sellers pulled a rather sinister prank. Riche was apparently going number two when out of nowhere, a hose was shoved in through a nearby window and started pumping sooty diesel exhaust into the room.
Riche fortunately made it out okay, but the damage to his dignity was in need of some retribution. As explained in the video above, Riche’s plan was to sneak up on the Diesel Sellers headquarters and use a flatbed to “steal” the truck belonging to Diesel Dave, who was supposed to be out to lunch with a lovely lady from Riche’s company.
In a twist of fate, however, said lovely lady betrayed Riche’s plan days before the prank was to be executed, and gave the Diesel Sellers crew the information they needed to do a counter-prank. Long story short–Riche did not succeed in stealing the truck, but he did succeed in testing G-forces in an unlatched cab-over-engine vehicle.
We talked to Riche, who assessed the damage for us: “[It] was mostly cosmetic, other than the brackets that were supposed to stop the truck from tipping all the way over snapped off.”
“The windshield was cracked and busted, the grille was smashed in, the door was bent, the speakers in the cab were ripped off. The steering column was disconnected and got a little screwed up. My head was cut in 3 places, my neck was stiff for a week, and I had just had ankle surgery so my foot was sore,” said Riche.
With the victim now twice fooled and eager for revenge, we’ll have to see how far this prank escalates. Keep an eye out for more videos from the DieselSellerz YouTube channel, and give Rockwell Watches a Like on Facebook, if for no other reason than Riche is a good sport who can take a dangerous prank like that in stride!