Lucas Trerice doesn't consider himself hamsterish. His friends beg to differ.
Arriving at his newly rented apartment at The Martin in downtown
Olympia this week, Trerice found his new digs transformed into a human
hamster room, complete with a man-sized hamster wheel, window-mounted
water bottle, metal tub full of large Cheetos, and lots of shredded
newspaper. He also found his own homemade hamster suit and couldn't
wait to try it on.
Trerice is no stranger to outrageous pranks. He was,
after all, the mastermind behind The Foil Room prank that grabbed
national attention during the waning days of 2003. Chris "Goose" Kirk,
the room's tenant, was visiting his girlfriend in Columbia and while he
was gone his friend Lucas got the idea to cover his entire apartment in
foil. It took five days, hundreds of rolls of foil, and the help of a
crack crew of local pranksters, but the results were brilliant. At the
time everyone wanted to know what Kirk's response would be.
Kirk who currently lives in Bogota was contacted for
comment on the hamster room and denies any involvement, "I couldn't be
happier or more proud that my friends continue to make the world a less
boring place, just for the sake of doing it. Also, I couldn't be more
relieved that this time, it's not my apartment."
Keith "Zeet" Jewell, a local theater sound wizard and
computer pro, is the creative force behind The Hamster Room. He says
that he was inspired by The Foil Room. "It had to be done. We had to
get Luke back, if only because it's just the kind of thing he would
have done."
Such is honor among pranksters.
Trerice,
who is looking to begin his dental practice in Olympia, says,
"Considering all of the pranks I've pulled over the years, I think I
got off lightly."
Perhaps the fates agree because within two minutes of
running on the hamster wheel Trerice was nursing a "slightly lacerated"
lip from a face-first fall. Hamstering is obviously not as easy as it
would seem.
Trerice is a good sport about the whole thing but as he
rolls in his bed of newly shredded papers one can't can't help but
wonder what cunning plan is percolating in the mind of this trickster
dentist. When asked, his response leaves little doubt that Olympia can
expect an escalation of hostilities in this war of wits.
"If this had come from one of my past victims like
Goose, that would be the end of it. But this is far from closure. All
Zeet has done is start a new prank vendetta." â€" Andras Jones