1988 Free Turkey Scam

Back in the 80's when I was a kid and into the very early 90's my friends and I were the kings of prank phone calls and practical jokes. I actually still have over two hours of some of these calls on tape which are hilarious. Many of my friends and co-workers over the years have heard these tapes and thought they were a riot. I was doing these tapes long before "The Jerky Boys" and many other phone scam artists. I have so many favorites. One of them is this crazy prank we played on a butcher shop two days before Thanksgiving in 1988. This butcher shop would always put a HUGE weekly ad in the local papers advertising their shop. So one day around 3pm my brother and I got a crazy idea. I picked up the phone and dialed the butcher shop. A guy answered by saying "ABC(fictional name) Meats, Craig speaking may I help you." I hung up, all I wanted was a person's name that worked there. My brother and I then proceeded to call approximately 75 homes in the vicinity of the butcher shop that we found in the white pages. We told each person that we were Craig from ABC Meats and that they had won a free 25lb Thanksgiving turkey in a raffle that we had conducted by taking local names out of the phone book. Almost every person we called was so excited that they had won a turkey and asked how to claim their prize. I told them to simply come down to the shop with ID and claim their turkey. Well, after about 75 calls, we decided to call ABC Meats to see what was going on. A very winded Craig answered the phone "ABC MEATS, may I help you." In the background you heard people yelling and screaming, the other phone lines ringing off the hook. I said to Craig, "Hi Craig, I am calling to verify that I won a free 25lb turkey", he said "Listen, I don't know what the hell is going on, I have about 30 people in here asking for free turkeys, the phone is ringing off the hook with people confirming winning a turkey, I'M NOT GIVING AWAY ANY GOD DAMN TURKEYS!!!!!!!" and he hung up. Poor Bastard.......that is one of my favorites...I'll share more with you over time.