Cardinal Points

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Fuse

Amélie Poulain, a character in a 2001 French film "Amelie", enjoyed pranking. Among her pranks was that she secretly passed her father's garden gnome to her stewardess friend to have her take pictures of the gnome traveling all around the world.

Last December, the Buffalo News reported a similar prank done by some people, at least two of whom were suspected to be Hobart and William Smith college students.

They stole a baby Jesus statue from a home in the area two days before the end of December 2005.

The statue was taken to many locations all over New York state and photographed before being returning back home with a photo album last August.

PSUC graduate student Bill Bougill mentioned a movie, "Scent of a Woman", whose main character is threatened with expulsion from the school unless he confesses his fellow pranker.

"It's kind of hard to do pranks in a college," Bougill said. "In terms of Plattsburgh, I don't see any pranks or anything like that. I don't want to get into any trouble."

Other students take advantage of the lack of pranking here.

"I don't see many of them (pranks on campus)," PSUC freshman Dan Bennette said. "That's why I do them."

Bennette shot videos and took pictures of the pranks he did to upload on YouTube and MySpace.

"I tried to capture all the good moments that deserve to be captured," he said.

As college students in the North Country, some videos are shot in the winter snow, such as wrestling and playing football.

In one of Bennette's videos, he and his friends jump off the second floor of a building into deep snow.

"I like to do little pranks, regular college pranks everyone should do," he said. "It's just fun. Have a good time, you know."

However, he said University Police has warned him twice because of his pranks - one of which was jumping off the second floor.

Some students cause serious trouble, such as hurting someone and breaking college property, especially when they are drunk, though they may think they are just pranking.

University Police warns that students need to recognize what they are doing and take responsibility for their actions.

"Things go wrong very quickly if you're drunk and doing things," Bennette said.

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