MIT pranksters take 2-ton Cal Tech cannon on a road trip to Cambridge

LAT: 2-Ton Cannon Is Fodder for Ongoing Rivalry Between Caltech and MIT
By Arin Gencer, Times Staff Writer
April 7, 2006


(Grant Jordan,The Tech)
Road trip

In the ongoing battle of the nerds between Caltech and MIT, the latest volley has been fired from a 130-year-old cannon.

Actually, the latest volley is a cannon.

Massachusetts pranksters, posing as professional movers, stole the beloved Fleming Cannon — traditionally fired at each year's commencement — from the Pasadena campus last week.

On Thursday it popped up, pointed toward Pasadena and adorned with an oversized Massachusetts Institute of Technology school ring, at the Cambridge campus next to a plaque referring to Caltech as "its previous owners."

The plaque explained that the students created the phony "Howe & Ser Moving Company" and used fake work-order forms to get past Caltech campus security guards. After that, a real shipping company toted the 2-ton relic across the country....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-statue7apr07,0,2096065.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Neil Steinberg wrote a book about college pranks. It's hilarious.

Smoot