By: Matthew Revels, Sports Editor
An epic prank war that’s been heating up on the third floor of Beata Hall since late February is about to come to an end.
And although it’s been fun, the parties involved have agreed on an Easter Sunday truce.
The war, raging between Beata resident assistant Elise Helfrich and freshman Thomas Munn,
began on the evening of Feb. 26, when Munn, assisted by graduate student Ian Lecki, put all of the couch cushions from the third-floor lobby on Helfrich’s bed.
Helfrich decided it would only be right to get even.
“I figured I would get Thomas back by stacking the cushions in front of his door so that the entrance was blocked,” Helfrich said. “However, Thomas decided to continue the antagonization by stacking in front of my door and declaring war over text.”
Early on, Helfrich and Munn agreed on a set of rules so that the prank war would stay fun and not get out of hand. Helfrich said she mostly feared Munn’s friends.
“Thomas is a reasonable guy, but I knew that the people who would help him enjoy more intense prank wars, and I wanted something more calm,” she said.
Thirteen mutually agreed-upon rules brought a sense of order to the war. Among them: No vandalism or destruction. All messes must be able to be cleaned up within 10 minutes. A prank response must be completed within 72 hours.
When someone broke one of the rules, their punishment was voted on by an “ethics committee” made up of a few impartial mutual friends. Punishments were minor, though, and only had to be inflicted a few times.
“I was a little late doing one of my pranks, and that was against the rules,” Munn said. “My punishment was instead of 72 hours, I only had 36 to pull my next prank.”
Helfrich and Munn estimate they each pulled five pranks on the other, and they agree on their top two favorites.
“I think his best prank so far was when he moved my entire room set up — decorations, clothes, mattress, rug and all — to the spare bedroom within his pod. It happened to be room E, so his phrase was ‘room E for Elise,’” Helfrich said. “My favorite prank that I've pulled was when I Saran-wrapped almost every single thing in his room. That one was fun to just go sit and watch him undo everything.”
A few other pranks pulled during the war: Munn gift wrapped the outside of Helfrich’s car, and Helfrich covered the floor of Munn’s dorm room in disposable cups filled with water.
Helfrich and Munn expressed gratitude to their friends and acquaintances for helping them get pranks done in time. “Noah (Ahrens), Connor (Payne) and Gavin (Wakefield) have helped me a ton along with Ian (Lecki) and Ryan (Morrissey) giving me ideas. Without their help I wouldn't have been able to get a lot of my pranks done or make them so elaborate,” Munn said.
As their war comes to an end, Helfrich and Munn say they would love to see more students have fun on campus like they have.
“...Find funny things to do to your friends that arent going to harm your friendship,” Munn said. “Also, find someone willing to match the same energy you are with it. Elise and I were on the same page for what we wanted to do and in doing so, the war did not get out of hand.”
Photo: Cole Farquhar, Photographer
