Aloha Pools & Spas Deep Dive Podcast

The Greatest April Fool’s Prank in Aloha History

Hosted by John Watts & Brad Cook | Guests: Jamie Worrell, Renee Arnold, Kimo

John: Welcome to the special April Fool’s edition of the Deep Dive Podcast. Today we’re looking back at what might be the greatest internal prank in Aloha history — and the people who lived through it are here to tell it.

How It Was Set Up

Brad: I want to be upfront — I’m not much of a prankster. But this one came together perfectly. We used to run large group text threads with customers, salespeople, and office staff all together. One day I thought, what if I started a fight with a customer on one of those threads?

The night before April Fool’s Day, I sent a message to each thread saying something like, “Early buys tomorrow — I need all the money I can get,” with a frowny face and a pistol emoji. Just enough to set the stage.

Then on April Fool’s morning, I started working the threads. But here’s the key — before sending anything, I called the unknown numbers on each thread, told the customer who I was, and asked if they’d help me play a prank on my sales team. Every single one of them said yes immediately.

I coached each customer to start calm and let things slowly escalate. We’d build up to a full-on argument about payment.

The Prank Unfolds

Renee: I got the first text and absolutely freaked out. Brad was on my customer’s thread demanding payment, saying things like, “You’re going to give me your rough-in money or I’m pulling off your job.” I called Kimo immediately — “Oh my gosh, what’s wrong with Brad? He’s going off on my customer!” And Kimo said, “He’s going off on mine too!”

Kimo: We were all calling each other trying to figure out what was happening. Nobody could reach Brad. He wouldn’t answer his phone.

Brad: I had to stay off the phone. If I picked up, the whole thing was over.

Dustin (Jr.): My customer was Pete from Paragould — the most no-nonsense guy you’ll ever meet. When I got the text asking about a payment check, I figured it was a mix-up about pool type. I texted back to clarify it was a vinyl liner job, not fiberglass. Then the next message came back: “I just know how you are — you like to drag your feet on payment.”I’m thinking, how does Brad even know this guy? Then Pete fires back, “Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” I had no idea this could be a joke because Pete was just not that kind of person.

Brad: The Clinton, Kentucky customer was my wild card. He went a little rogue — told me his bank said because of COVID it could take three to six months to release funds, and that wasn’t going to be a problem, was it? I had to immediately call the construction crew and turn them around. Then I called him back and said, “You’ve got to soften that up — I’ve got guys headed your way and I just turned them around.” He came back with, “I’m kidding, but I do need to see some work before I cut any checks.”

Renee: My customer was the sweetest lady in Duquoin, Illinois. She played it perfectly — told Brad she and her husband were in the medical community, worked incredibly hard, and deserved more respect. She was so convincing.

The Intervention Attempt

Renee: At some point we decided we had to call Cindy Cook — Brad’s wife — because maybe she could talk some sense into him. I called her and said, “Cindy, where is Brad? Do you know he’s texting customers?” And she said she had no idea what was going on.

Brad: I had looped Cindy in just enough to keep her neutral. When she said “I don’t know” to everyone calling her, she wasn’t lying — she genuinely wasn’t sure what was real. She’s a real ride-or-die. She didn’t come at me once.

Kimo: That actually made it worse for us, because even Cindy seemed confused, which meant we couldn’t get any traction. We decided we had to call Matt French in IT and have him shut Brad’s phone down. Matt said he might be able to pause it but couldn’t fully shut him down, and we were like, “You have to shut him down.”

Jamie: Word had even spread to the service department. People were warning each other — duck and cover, duck and cover. I had just started working here and I remember the rumblings coming through: “Something really bad is happening right now. Watch what you’re doing.”

The Conference Call

Brad: At some point I sent a message to the whole group: conference call in 30 minutes, everyone be on.

Renee: It was the longest 30 minutes of my life.

Kimo: We all got on the call and were waiting for Brad to join. When he finally clicked in and said, “Is everybody on?” — we were all wound up, totally frantic. And he just said, “April Fool’s Day.”

Renee: We didn’t get it at first. We were still in shock. Because the customers were real people — we didn’t know they were in on it.

Kimo: We were mad. We asked him to call each customer and tell them it was a joke, because as far as we knew, he’d just blown up all of our relationships. And then he told us the customers had been in on it the whole time — and we still barely believed it, because he had picked the exact people we never would have expected.

Jamie: And then Brad comes walking into the service office with this grin on his face, sits down, and fills us in. And I remember thinking — okay, whatever chaos comes with this job, this is clearly a pretty fun place to work.

The Attempted Revenge

Brad: Two years later, they almost got me back. I was out at Poplar Bluff working on a campground pool, staying on-site. The plan was to have Cindy Newman and her husband beat on my camper in the middle of the night and tell me someone had stolen the Aloha truck and gone for a joyride. They had planned it for two full years.

Kimo: But she couldn’t go through with it. She called and said she just felt too bad — he’d been working so hard on their job.

Brad: She called me the next morning and I said, “Haha, funny — not going to work.” And she was like, “What? How did you know?” I didn’t. I just figured something was coming eventually.

Brad: That was my one and done. I consider myself a fun guy, but I’ve got nothing left after that one. I do walk into every April Fool’s Day now looking over my shoulder, though. Whatever you do — don’t give me a heart attack. Don’t tell me the building burned down or something.

Thanks for joining us for this walk down memory lane. If you’ve got a question or a topic you’d like us to cover, drop it in the comments below. Find us on YouTube and all the socials — and as always, dive safely.