Undoubtably one of my ultimate gags, this is the story of how I pranked NKU into making an official parking zone just for bagel delivery. You are gonna wanna read this one!

An idea came to me Freshman year as me and my hallmates were discussing our frustrations with having to park so very far away from our dorm since the nearby lot was small and filled so quickly. From there, we throw out some humorous solutions, such as training a goose to sit in a parking spot and only moving for your car (I’m still working on this one. If you are a goose trainer or know one, lets get in touch).

Eventually, one of us jokingly suggested painting a parking space to look official enough that nobody else would park there, but, as to avoid getting in trouble for basically reserving our own parking space, we would make the official-looking text to be clearly ridiculous and fictional…

And you better believe thats exactly what I ended up actually doing my Sophomore year! haha!

I decided that the phrase “BAGEL DROP OFF AND PICK UP ONLY” would clearly be fake and made up sounding to any NKU staff and most students, but it still is painted on the ground, so students would be too afraid to park there (besides those in on the gag).

I traced out the lettering onto a giant sheet of paper using a projector then cut them out to get a nice clean stencil. After picking the perfect spot near the back entrance by the dinning hall, I waited until nightfall and proceeded to sweep the parking space clean.

Using temporary marking chalk paint, I sprayed the stencil, pulled it up and returned inside. Then I watched as students began to pull up to the only empty parking space in the upper lot only to find that it was reserved for a fictional bagel delivery person.

In fact, I rarely parked there afterwords as it was just too funny to watch other students not park there. but eventually, after about a month, a few other students started parking there, I guess because they figured that it was clearly just a joke.

(quick aside about the temporary paint that I was using… I was lead to believe that it would only last about a month… Buuuut I was wrong. It ended up staying there in a perfectly visible form for about 8 months! Even through all of the snow that we had in 2015. Thanks, Krylon…)

But here is where the joke gets really funny…

One day, about two months later, I was walking outside to the lower lot and I see this…

THERE WAS AN OFFICIAL NKU STAFF PARKING SIGN THERE!!!

Someone at Parking Services and/or Facility Maintenance saw ‘BAGEL DROP OFF AND PICK UP ONLY’ and thought, “Oh no, this Bagel drop off only parking spot doesn’t have a sign! We need to put one here!”

They poured a deep concrete base for it and everything… Like this clearly took more than one person to make happen. As in, multiple employees just believed that the dinning hall needed so many bagels, that they had to have a permanent parking space solely designated for bagel delivery… Even though there were not reserved parking spaces at Callahan for dinning hall staff, custodians or anyone else besides Hall Director and Assistant Hall director…

I was so excited about this achievement that I had to get a picture with it to send to friends and family proving that I pranked just too hard.

After that, I never parked in it, although one or two people still did.

Supposedly, one of my friend’s friends got a parking ticket for parking here, but I’m not so sure about that actually happening, because I’m pretty sure if someone got a ticket there they would dispute it and/or parking services would send someone out to take a closer look at the parking space. Before I made this post I actually asked one of my friends who has worked at parking services for quite a while, and she says she never heard anything about it if they did actually get a ticket for that space. But she said she would try to look it up and ask around the office later this week and let me know what she finds. If someone actually did, I would feel pretty bad about it honestly…

And about the people that kept parking there, most of them I didn’t know, but I always felt like they were askin’ for a prankin’ by parking in a prank parking spot. I never did it, but I always wanted to get a dining hall employee uniform and wait for one of them to show up, and then run up to them say “FINALLY! YOU’RE HERE! WERE DYING IN THERE! WHERE ARE THOSE BAGELS!?!?” and then when they say they are not the bagel delivery person, yell “WHAT! YOU CANT PARK HERE! This spot is only for bagel delivery! We need those bagels pronto! I’m calling that delivery boy right now!” and then run back inside.

Anyways, like I said, that paint stayed there in that spot for about 8 or so months, before it became too faint to really read from a car. But to this day, that sign is still there. And apparently the dining hall staff park there now, which I’m sure they appreciate, even if it means they don’t actually have a dedicated pastry drop off zone.

And thats the story of how I pranked NKU Parking Services and Facility Maintenance into making an official parking space for bagel delivery.

PS, I believe I still have this stencil somewhere… If anyone needs to reserve a parking space and wants to borrow it, let me know! haha just kidding!