April really is the cruelest month, as the poet said. First comes April Fools' Day and then the deadline for submitting federal and state tax information hits on April 15. We can't do anything about the amount of taxes you owe, but we hope these April Fools' anecdotes will spark a smile.

Happy anniversary

April Fools' Day has a special meaning for Kevin Mueller, a concrete worker and Carney-Cub Hill resident; and his wife, Allison.

"We got married on April Fools' Day," Kevin Mueller said.

Mueller told his then fiancée that April 1 was the only day he had available to get married, "so she dragged me down to the courthouse," he said.

Mueller wasn't serious about that being the only day he could say his vows, but Allison played along.

"I said it as a joke, and she ran with it," he said.

Mueller said he doesn't usually play any on April Fools' Day because everyone is looking for them. Instead, "I play pranks all the time," he said.

A real zoo

When he was a kid, he and his friends liked to call strangers on the phone on April Fond leave a message for "Mr. Lyon," said George Shelley, a liquor store manager from Loch Raven Village.

"Then we'd leave the number of the Washington, D.C. zoo," he said.

"It was done to me, so I passed it on. You can bet the zoo gets plenty of calls around April Fools' Day."

To this day he's suspicious when he gets a message from "Mr. Lyon" or "Mr. Fox," he said.

Revenge will be sweet

State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger was the victim of an April Fools' Day prank perpetrated by Ann Bropst, another Baltimore County prosecutor.

"I don't have a sense of humor and even less so when I am preparing for trial," Shellenberger said.

That made Shellenberger a perfect target back in the early 1990s when he was a young prosecutor in the Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office.

Bropst's cunning plan involved Shellenberger's boss, police officers and even a defense attorney.

Shellenberger, then a young prosecutor in Baltimore County, was preparing to prosecute a murder case involving complicated DNA evidence.

"I called down to tell officers when they could bring in the evidence, and they told me they had turned it over to the defense attorney for testing by his experts," Shellenberger explained.

Shellenberger called defense attorney Robert Lazzaro to get the evidence back. Not a chance, it had already been sent for testing.

Surely there was something then-State's Attorney Sandra O'Connor could do to fix this problem.

"She said, 'Scott, I don't think there's anything we can do at this point,'" Shellenberger recounted.

At this point Shellenberger said he became agitated, a state that would last about an hour until Robin Coffin, who is now one of Shellenberger's two deputy state's attorneys, let him off the hook.

"She said 'What's today's date?" Shellenberger said, adding that he was surprised Bropst had "all of them in on it."

"For a number of years after that I would call Ann up just to put the fear of God into her that I might get even," Shellenberger said.

Information, please!

The surprise could be on librarians at the Rosedale branch of the Baltimounty Public Library on April Fools' Day.

"I understand that someone who does the scheduling there has me scheduled to work the (information) desk that day," said Jim Fish, director of the county library system.

"We have high public service standards so if they put me on the desk, those standards are going to suffer," Fish added.

"I think I might stop by the branch just for fun," he said with a smile.

Thirsty?

She was about 12 years old, said Kristen Avil, an 18-year-old Towson High School senior from Lutherville, when she fell victim to an April Fools' Day prank.

She had come home from middle school with a girlfriend, and they were busy talking when the friend suggested they go in the kitchen and get something to drink.

"I went to the sink and turned on the faucet and the water went straight into my face," she said.

"I was really surprised. I thought what the heck happened?"

At first she was really frustrated, she said. "And then I realized it was really funny."

Her friend was the guilty party, she said. Shetaped the faucet opening.

"Oooh, she played it so cool," Avil said.

Oh, baby

Gabby Samuels, a banker and Parkville resident, played a prank on her mother a few years ago.

"I called my mom under the pretense that I was pregnant," Samuels said.

Samuels' mother was excited until she remembered what day it was.

"That was the worst one that I've ever done," Samuels said.

But it's not the worst prank she's ever seen.

One April Fools' Day when Samuels lived in British Guyana, the local radio station told its listeners that Whitney Houston was coming to the country, Samuels said.

"People turned out to the airport in droves," Samuels said.

Eventually it became clear to listeners that they'd been had.

"People were mad," Samuels said.

"They threw eggs, they threw tomatoes," she said. "Someone even threw a rock and broke a window."

April Fools' Day anecdotes compiled by Loni Ingraham, Jay R. Thompson and Bryan P. Sears.

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