Techie expensed a bag of oranges and then juiced up a stupid security incident
A Register reader recalls a co-worker hurling expensed oranges at a van, triggering a security scare before guards figured out the prank.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
This Who, Me? anecdote follows a tech worker on a government contract whose boredom led a colleague to throw company-expensed oranges out of a window. The prank amused the pair until security guards noticed the chaos and started hunting for the source.
A worker and a friend were fixing computers in a big building. One of them got bored and started throwing oranges at a van outside.
The van driver got upset and kept looking around, trying to find who was doing it. It was like trying to spot a bird when the bird is hiding behind a tree.
Then security guards noticed something strange and began searching the building. The story says the prank stayed funny only until it started looking like a real problem.
Analysis
What happened
The piece is a reader-submitted "Who, Me?" story from The Register. Kirk says he had one of the easiest and best-paid jobs of his life, walking around a significant government building swapping computers and monitors. The work was straightforward: install the new kit and remove the old one.
One colleague apparently got bored and decided to entertain himself by buying a bag of organic oranges, expensing them to the client, and throwing them from an upper window onto the roof of a van below. The van driver reacted by jumping out and spinning around, trying to work out where the fruit was coming from. Kirk says he and his colleague found the scene hilarious and kept throwing more oranges.
Why it escalated
The joke stopped being private once security guards from a nearby building noticed what was happening. They could see the driver losing patience and oranges appearing from nowhere, so they started moving through the building and pointing at the ground, trying to trace the source. They still could not identify the thrower.
Kirk says the incident taught a simple lesson: if something is hard to believe, people may not see it even when it is happening in front of them. In the end, no one lost their job, but the story is used as a cautionary tale about boredom, bad ideas, and how quickly a dumb prank can look like a real security problem.
Key points
- The article is a reader-submitted workplace confession from The Register's 'Who, Me?' column.
- A tech worker says he was swapping hardware in a government building on a client contract.
- A colleague bought oranges, expensed them, and threw them at a van from an upper window.
- The van driver and nearby security staff reacted as if a real incident might be unfolding.
- The story ends as a warning about how quickly a stupid prank can turn into a security scare.
