For 51 years, Linda Bell has been playing April Fool's Day pranks on her husband Dave, and every year he falls for them.
This year was no exception.
Monday's prank was pretty simple. Dave had parked his truck in front of St. Paul's Lutheran Church where he was helping to do some repairs.
Unbeknownst to Dave, Linda moved the truck around the corner onto 50th Avenue.
A while later, Dave came out to his truck.
It was gone.
"It was there for a couple of hours. And then it left. I just went outside, we were doing some work. 'My truck's gone. I've got the keys in my pocket,'" he said during an interview with the Albertan.
"I came back and (fellow worker) Ken Weseen says, 'what's the matter?' I said, 'my truck's gone.' (He said), 'what do you mean?' I said 'there's no truck there. My truck's gone.' He smiled. He said, 'oh, here, I forgot to give you this,'" Dave said as he unfolded a small piece of paper. "Soon as I saw it, I knew. (It said) 'April Fool's.'"
Dave had forgotten that Monday was April Fool's Day until a friend asked him if Linda had 'gotten' him yet.
"I said, 'no, everything's fine. She's not going to get me this year.'"
"He usually phones me about the same time every year and says, 'you got me again and you got me good,'" Linda said.
Dave conceded Linda got him again. He was asked how this prank ranks with others over the years of their marriage.
"Right up there with them all," he said.
They both agreed the fact that there's been so much truck theft in Olds and area made this prank especially effective.
"That's why I knew, because there've been so many trucks stolen. I thought, 'he'll go over the top,'" Linda said.
"She's got me to some degree every year," Dave said. "A couple of years ago, she took some flowers down to a neighbour lady because it was her 90th birthday.
"It was on a Saturday so I was home. She phoned me. She said, 'are you still home?' I said, 'yeah, why?' She said, 'well, I just fell and I think I broke my ankle.'
"I said, 'you've got to be kidding.' So I rush in my truck, get down there. And there she is on all fours, down. I said, 'what the hell happened?' She said, 'April Fool's.' I got in my truck and went home."
"One year he was at the shop with all his friends," Linda said. "I went roaring down there and I called them all out. I said, 'my God, have you seen the fire? I think Tedds is on fire.' They all came running out and said, 'Where? Where? And I said, 'April Fool's,'"
Thirteen years ago, Linda, along with others, arranged another one.
Dave went down to A & W to meet friends only to find no one there. His daughter phoned asking him to come down to his shop. When he got there, he found a big surprise.
"They had gotten in the night before, cleaned my shop out, set tables up, had a grill going and invited about 100, 150 farmers in 'we're having an open house.' Pancake breakfast. The whole town was there," Dave recalled with a laugh. "One guy said, 'happy birthday.' I said, 'it's not my birthday.'"
"It's a family tradition," Linda said. "My dad never missed an April Fool's Day at getting us and I just had to carry it on in his memory, I guess.
"Dave and I have known each other a long time but he still doesn't catch on. I mean there's going to come a time when this isn't going to happen. But in the meantime, I hate to let all those people down. I think the community at this time of the year needs a laugh.
"It's just a little fun."
