Why did the chicken cross the road?

Last year I played an April Fools prank on my husband and mom (we'll call her Buffet Brawler*). It worked so well that I wrote a blog post about it to prank the readers of my old blog. Here it is.
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This morning my son and I stopped by Petsmart to buy dog food. There's an adoption event going on, so I had to park pretty far out. Before getting out of the car, I plugged my cell phone in to charge. While I was doing that, a man opened my passenger side door and poked his head in. I had just seen this guy out by the main road. I remembered him because he was wearing a chicken suit and holding one of those signs that says, "OUT OF BUSINESS SALE! EVERYTHING MUST GO!" The Circuit City next to Petsmart is going out of business and has had guys in costume holding up those signs and dancing around to draw attention to the signs for weeks.

The guy said in a low voice, "Get out of the car." I said, "What?!" My son said, "He said to get out of the car, Mom!" I have to admit that there was a moment of confusion for me. The guy didn't look threatening. Especially in a chicken suit. He didn't have a weapon. My first thought was that this was a practical joke. Nature Boy however, wasted no time in getting out of the car. I'm sure it was only seconds, but it felt like minutes as my mind put together what was happening. I grabbed my purse (I am a tad paranoid, so I didn't want to give him access to my driver's license) and got out. I was so intent on leaving with my purse that I didn't think to grab the keys out of the ignition. The guy scooted over to the driver's side, and my son and I hightailed it up to the store to call the police. (My cell phone was charging in the car, remember.)

On the way, I looked back and saw the tail end of my car as it turned out of the row I had parked in. I was starting to freak out, but I tried to hold it together to avoid upsetting Nature Boy further. Right as we reached the walkway in front of Petsmart, the guy pulled up. He had just circled around the parking lot. I jumped in front of my son and yelled, "GET IN THE STORE!" He ran inside and I prepared to use my purse as a weapon. Chicken Suit Guy got out of the car and yelled, "Never mind! Sorry!"

And then he ran off.

In his chicken suit.

My son and two store employees came out as the guy rounded the building. I told them what had happened and they offered to call the police. I told them I would call, but because I'm paranoid, I got in the car to make sure the guy hadn't taken anything first. I turned my cell phone on to call the police, but wavered while waiting for it to boot up. I had 15 minutes to get home before the exterminator was supposed to show up, and I knew filing a police report would take much longer than that. Besides, all the guy really did was take my car for a spin around the parking lot of Petsmart. And it's not like I could identify him what with the chicken suit and all. So we just drove home.

So here I am. And the exterminator is late.
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Can you believe this prank worked? I submit that it was believable only because I included several nonessential facts that rang true to my mom and husband. They were familiar with the Circuit City chicken suit guy, they know I'm paranoid, I mentioned an adoption event at Petsmart, etc. Also, the story was so ridiculous that they thought it was an April Fools prank on me.  (Tricky!)

Have you ever pulled off a successful prank?

*Stay tuned for the story of the Showdown at Golden Corral.