BSCC- BEWARE OF "PAPER IN THE BACK WINDOW" OF YOUR VEHICLE

[Celia I. Raia]

Hi Ray. I always go to snopes.com to check these out, and this one they 
claim is false. See http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/carjack.asp

In searching for this one I found another one which I'd read before, but 
which gives me a chuckle each time. It would be a good newsletter space 
filler at some point:

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/pants.asp

Claim:   For twenty-five years, two brothers-in-law traded the same pair 
of gift pants back and forth between them, each time finding more 
inventive ways to wrap them.

Status:   True.

Origins:   The
one present Roy Collette wasn't looking forward to getting for Christmas 
1988 was those damned pants. Yet he knew he was in trouble as soon as 
Christmas Card the flatbed truck bearing a concrete-filled tank off a 
truck used to deliver ready-mix rolled up. Sure as God made little green 
apples, those pants had to be in there. And he was going to have to fish 
them out, else declare his brother-in-law the winner of a rivalry that 
had spanned 20 years.

Being the sport he is, brother-in-law Larry Kunkel thoughtfully supplied 
the services of a crane to hoist the concrete-filled tank off the flatbed.

What's this game, you ask? What was the significance of these pants, and 
why were two grown men going to such efforts year after year to retrieve 
them, only to send them off again?

It all began in 1964 when Larry Kunkel's mom gave him a pair of moleskin 
pants. After wearing them a few times, he found they froze stiff in 
Minnesota winters and thus wouldn't do. That next Christmas, he wrapped 
the garment in pretty paper and presented it to his brother-in-law.

Brother-in-law Roy Collette discovered he didn't want them either. He 
bided his time until the Christmas after, then packaged them up and gave 
them back to Kunkel. This yearly exchange proceeded amicably until one 
year Collette twisted the pants tightly and stuffed them into a 
3-foot-long, 1-inch wide pipe.

And so the game began. Year after year, as the pants were shuffled back 
and forth, the brothers strove to make unwrapping them more difficult, 
perhaps in the hope of ending the tradition. In retaliation for the 
pipe, Kunkel compressed the pants into a 7-inch square, wrapped them 
with wire and gave the "bale" to Collette. Not to be outdone, Collette 
put the pants into a 2-foot-square crate filled with stones, nailed it 
shut, banded it with steel and gave the trusty trousers back to Kunkel.

The brothers agreed to end the caper if the trousers were damaged. But 
they were as careful as they were clever. As the game evolved, so did 
the rules. Only "legal and moral" methods of wrapping were permitted. 
Wrapping expenses were kept to a minimum with only junk parts used.

Kunkel next had the pants mounted inside an insulated window that had a 
20-year guarantee and shipped them off to Collette.

Collette broke the glass, recovered the trousers, stuffed them into a 
5-inch coffee can, which he soldered shut. The can was put in a 5-gallon 
container filled with concrete and reinforcing rods and given to Kunkel 
the following Christmas.

Kunkel installed the pants in a 225-pound homemade steel ashtray made 
from 8-inch steel casings and etched Collette's name on the side. 
Collette had trouble retrieving the treasured trousers, but succeeded 
without burning them with a cutting torch.

Collette found a 600-pound safe and hauled it to Viracon Inc. in 
Owatonna, where the shipping department decorated it with red and green 
stripes, put the pants inside and welded the safe shut. The safe was 
then shipped to Kunkel, who was the plant manager for Viracon's outlet 
in Bensenville.

The pants next turned up in a drab green, 3-foot cube that once was a 
1974 Gremlin. A note attached to the 2,000-pound scrunched car advised 
Collette that the pants were inside the glove compartment.

In 1982 Kunkel faced the problem of retrieving the pants from a tire 8 
feet high and 2 feet wide and filled with 6,000 pounds of concrete. On 
the outside Collette had written, "Have a Goodyear."

In 1983 the pants came back to Collette in a 17.5-foot red rocket ship 
filled with concrete and weighing 6 tons. Five feet in diameter, with 
pipes 6 inches in diameter outside running the length of the ship and a 
launching pad attached to its bottom, the rocket sported a picture of 
the pants fluttering atop it. Inside the rocket were 15 concrete-filled 
canisters, one of which housed the pants.

Collette's revenge for the rocket ship was delivered to Kunkel in the 
form of a 4-ton Rubik's Cube in 1985. The cube was made of concrete that 
had been baked in a kiln and covered with 2,000 board feet of lumber.

Kunkel "solved the cube," and for 1986 gift-giving repackaged the pants 
into a station wagon filled with 170 steel generators all welded 
together. Because the pants have to be retrieved undamaged, Collette was 
faced with carefully taking apart each component.

What happened to the pants in 1987 is a mystery, and their 1988 
packaging (concrete-filled tank) was mentioned at the beginning of this 
page. Sadly, 1989's packaging scheme brought the demise of the 
much-abused garment.

Collette was inspired to encase the pantaloons in 10,000 pounds of 
jagged glass that he would then deposit in Kunkel's front yard. "It 
would have been a great one - really messy," Kunkel ruefully admitted. 
The pants were shipped to a friend in Tennessee who managed a glass 
manufacturing company. While molten glass was being poured over the 
insulated container that held them, an oversized chunk fractured, 
transforming the pants into a pile of ashes.

The ashes were deposited into a brass urn and delivered to Kunkel along 
with this epitaph:

     Sorry, Old Man Here lies the Pants. . . An attempt to cast the 
pants in glass brought about the demise of the pants at last.

The urn now graces the fireplace mantel in Kunkel's home.

Barbara "urning its keep" Mikkelson



Celia


Ray & Kathy Bombardier wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>  
> I received this e-mail from Joyce Smiley and thought it would be wise to 
> pass this on to all you lovely ladies, (and gents), of Bay State 
> Corvairs.   Just keep this information in the back of your mind should 
> you see a "Paper in the Back Window!"..............
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  
> *BEWARE  OF  "PAPER IN  THE  BACK  WINDOW"  OF  YOUR VEHICLE *
> *    *
> *    Subject: NEW WAY TO DO CAR JACKINGS **(NOT A JOKE) *
> *    Heads up everyone!    Please, keep this circulating...*
> *
>    You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and
>    get inside.
>    You start the engine and shift into Reverse. *
> *    When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of
>    your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck
>    to the middle of the rear window. So, you shift into
>    Park, unlock your doors, and jump out of your car to
>    remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing
>    your view.
>    When you reach the back of your car, that is when the
>    car jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car
>    and take off.
>    They practically mow you down as they speed off in your
>     car. *
> *    And guess what, ladies?   I bet your purse is still in the car.
>    So now the carjacker has your car, your home address,
>    your money, and your keys.
>    Your home and your whole identity are now compromised! *
> *    BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.... *
> *    If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just drive away.
>    Remove the paper later.
>    And be thankful that you read this e-mail.
>    I hope you will forward this to friends and family,
>    especially to women.
>    A purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification 
> documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands.
>    
>    Lieutenant Tony Bartolome
>    Bureau of Investigations
>    Florida Highway Patrol
>    P.O. Box 593527   Orlando , FL 32859**
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>  _______________________________________________
> This message was sent by the BSC-list mailing list, all copyrights are the property
> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, mailto:bsc-list-help at corvair.org
> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, http://www.corvair.org/
> Post messages to: BSC-list at corvair.org
> List info: http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/listinfo/bsc-list 
>  _______________________________________________

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Celia Raia             210 William James Hall    phone: 617/495-3810
  Psychology Department  33 Kirkland Street        fax: 617/496-8279
  Harvard University     Cambridge, MA 02138       cir at wjh.harvard.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------