DIY

PRANKS

EVIL MOUSE PRANK

Control your co-worker’s cursor!

By John Edgar Park

Joe Bowers is sneaky, resourceful, and rotten to the core. Whatever you do, don’t get in a prank war with him.

Photograph by Sam Murphy

Returning to my desk from a coffee break, I sat down, grabbed my mouse, and ... nothing. The cursor was stuck to the left wall of my monitor. I shook my mouse wildly. The cursor moved up and down just fine. But when I jerked my mouse viciously to the right, the cursor nudged a little, then slammed back to its new favorite position, clinging maddeningly to the leftmost pixel.

Blowing on the mouse’s nether regions didn’t help, so my officemate, Hide Yosumi, took pity on me. “Do you hear something?” he asked knowingly. There was a high-pitched whine coming from behind my workstation. I looked and saw that a strange mouse was plugged in. Not just any mouse. A prank mouse.

Like most analog mice, it once used a ball to drive

MATERIALS

Analog mouse

Tiny DC motor from an old cellphone, toothbrush, or R/C toy

SPST switch

Insulated 22 AWG stranded wire, 4"

One AAA battery

Electrician’s tape

Heat-shrink tubing

TOOLS

Phillips head screwdriver
Sharp knife
Pushpin
Hot glue gun
Soldering iron
Lighter or candle

Make: 149