Her dorm neighbors tap-danced until 2 am, ignoring her need for quiet study time. So she used a clever 1991 landline prank to get revenge at 7 am
When the neighbors finally realized who was behind the prank, they came down to talk to the author and called a truce.
Sometimes the best way to resolve an issue is to fight fire with fire. In 1991, a college student (u/geekynerdnerdygeek) lived on the first floor of a two-story dormitory with wooden floors and high ceilings. Freshman year was fine, but during her sophomore year, the students over her room "clomped" around till late at night. The first few times, she politely requested them to lower the volume, but they refused. One night, while the author was studying, people overhead started tap-dancing at midnight. Frustrated, she took matters into her hands and cooked up a sneaky little prank. The post was shared on October 7, 2026.
The midnight stomp show
The dorm rules were "girls only" after 9 p.m. and "quiet hours" from 11 p.m. on the weekend. The author had no issue with the rules, but she wrote, "We could hear the upstairs room clomping around because of the wood floors and our beds being at the ceiling." She stuck it out for a whole year, but it got worse during her sophomore year. The people upstairs would "clomp" around until past midnight. She asked them to take off their shoes to reduce the noise, but they refused.
The petty revenge
One time, the author had an organic chemistry exam at 8:30 a.m. She was preparing for it when the students upstairs started tap dancing in the middle of the night. The author asked them to stop, but they refused. "The RA asked them. They just wouldn’t remove their shoes," she recounted. The following morning, the author decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. In the 90s, they had landlines and no caller ID. She knew the dorm room's phone number and called them at 7 a.m. When she heard the students climb down to answer, she hung up. She waited for them to return to their room, then called again. The author kept doing it for four days. She wrote, "They didn’t want to miss a social call, so they didn’t turn off their ringer for any extended period. We probably called them out of bed 20 times." When the neighbors finally realized who was behind the prank, they came down to talk to the author and called a truce.
Getting back at annoying neighbors
A 2019 Lucy Foulkes study found that first-year students who lived on campus had poor sleep quality, and noisy flatmates or friends were the main reason why. The author faced this too. The people living right above her room were socializing until two in the morning and were extremely noisy.
Meanwhile, another survey of 1,200 people by Lombardo Homes also revealed that 17% of respondents admitted to doing something "on purpose" to get back at their annoying neighbor. Thankfully, the author's landline prank worked in her favor and stopped the annoying girls from "clomping" around their room again.
'Power is the only play'
Meanwhile, netizens were extremely satisfied by the author's prank. For example, u/Contrantier commented, "Damn, so knowing they were deliberately doing it the whole time just to behave like antisocial dumb**ses kind of makes it even more satisfying." u/ CoderJoe1 wrote, "You made them your call girls." u/KingBooRadley recalled, "My brother had a single room, and his neighbors were a total noise nightmare. They ignored him repeatedly, so one Friday afternoon he found a phone in a barely used academic building, called his room, set the academic phone down beside the receiver, and left town for the weekend. They were begging for a truce Sunday night when he returned."
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