Teaser: Fed up with an 8-month-old pothole, one Englishman turned to gallows humor to spur action. He planted a pair of fake legs – clad in old jeans and shoes – sticking straight out of the pit. The hilarious sight not only gave neighbors a laugh, it shamed officials into finally filling the pothole within a week .
- James Coxall of Cambridgeshire got creative after a massive 3-foot wide pothole remained unfixed for months .
- With help from his kids, he built a dummy bottom-half of a “person” using wood, rags, old jeans and shoes, and stood it upside-down in the hole – as if someone had fallen in headfirst .
- Photos of the cheeky installation spread on local social media and quickly caught the attention of the county council (though officials never publicly acknowledged the prank) .
- Sure enough, within four days of the legs’ appearance on Haverhill Road, road crews turned up and filled the long-neglected pothole .
- Laugh and Learn: “We just thought that would be the most amusing way to highlight the pothole… You’ve got to have a laugh and a joke, haven’t you?” Coxall explained of his good-humored civic activism .
Full Story: Tired of literally falling through the cracks, residents of Castle Camps village had complained about a deep pothole on Haverhill Road for over 8 months – but to no avail. So local dad James Coxall decided to escalate the matter with humor. “Rather than get mad,” he roped in his wife and children to execute a brilliantly silly plan . They crafted a pair of fake legs: wooden sticks for support, an old pair of jeans stuffed with rags, and a pair of the kids’ worn-out sneakers screwed on top . Under cover of semi-darkness, Coxall “planted” the phantom legs upside-down in the gaping pothole, creating the illusion someone had taken an unfortunate tumble straight into the earth .
The sight was equal parts shocking and side-splitting. Neighbors driving by did double-takes, then burst out laughing once they realized it was a joke. Photos of the leggy stunt spread quickly online, drawing attention to the hazard. Even the local schoolchildren – including Coxall’s own – suddenly found their dad rather cool, as they became “prankster-celebrities” at school for a few days . More importantly, the prank worked: officials who had long ignored complaints could hardly ignore a pair of feet sticking out of the road. Within four days, a work crew quietly arrived and patched the pothole, finally making the street safe again .
In a funny twist, the road crew left the faux legs off to the side rather than throwing them away . Coxall’s wife retrieved the now-famous prop (deemed a piece of “art” by the prankster himself), preserving it perhaps for a future stunt . The council never officially commented on the prank, but their swift action spoke volumes. “There were 1,001 ways to highlight the issue – we just thought this would be the most amusing,” Coxall chuckled . His lighthearted approach not only fixed the pothole but also underscored a point: a bit of creativity and humor can jolt bureaucrats into action. Now Coxall is pondering his next move for the village’s other neglected potholes – perhaps a miniature sinking Titanic scene, he jokes . Source: Coxall’s pothole prank covered by CBC/As It Happens .
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