Comment 80 column punch cards (Score 1) 230
All the greybeards have these sorts of stories, but not this specific tale. Working at MSU physics lab, about once a week I would take two or three trays of punch cards, with no sequence numbers (that would have taken up 8 precious columns) over to the data center to be read in by a simple 2-4 card JCL code. I would mark the tops of the decks with a big "X" and the date, no worries.
One day the printout came back with a simple JCL error, so I went to pick up the deck planning to resubmit it. As they brought the boxes forward they dumped them all over the floor, as I stood there watching. Ooops.
Of course, they had actually taken an old set of cards and dumped them, this was my second time being involved in a prank while working with data centers. The first time, I was the pranker, so I had it coming.
Another story involves a pranker feedback loop. Using SimScript back in the day, punch cards with turnarounds measured in hours.
Student gets his printout back and finds the report includes a printed line "Eat my shorts". He rifles through his card deck, and finds a card that his buddy had slipped in. Running the card through the punch, he adds the words "... you scum sucking pig" and inserts it into the suspected pranker's submitted deck.
Cue lunch. The Sargent from data center window comes to our lunch table to tell the original pranker (now the prankee) that they killed his job after it printed a several foot high stack of "Eat my shorts you scum sucking pig" (oops, forgot to look for programming loops before just dropping the card into the deck). He is to report to the Commander at 2PM to explain himself.
Original prankee falls all over himself apologizing, promises to go with the original pranker to explain, lots of recrimination, etc. Sargent, having stood there silently, finally interrupts to note that they really only printed a few pages, and this abuse of government equipment need not go any higher.
Lessons learned? (1) Do NOT prank carelessly. (2) If you must prank, keep the sysops in the loop.