Dad Pranks Future Homeowners With Skeleton Surprise In Kitchen Island

Future remodelers of one St. Louis home are in for a real shock thanks to one extremely “humerus” Missouri carpenter.

Cole Henderson, 31, has been waiting several years for the right opportunity to pull out an epic prank involving a kitchen renovation and a skeleton.

The lead carpenter for Callier & Thompson, a remodeling company in Manchester, Missouri, told TODAY Parents he was inspired by a meme he saw in a construction group about hiding a skeleton in unused cabinet space for future homeowners or demo crews to uncover.

“The original meme just had a skeleton, so I decided to throw my work uniform on it,” Henderson said. “20 or 30 years down the road when that gets remodeled, it will give somebody a jump scare.”

Henderson’s boss, Bob Strate, president and co-owner of the company, posted Henderson’s hijinks to the company’s social page.

“Our production team likes to have a good laugh whenever possible. The Lead Carpenter, Cole Henderson thought it would be funny to hide a fake skeleton inside a closed island cabinet,” Strate wrote. “Whoever remodels this kitchen many years down the road will have a great surprise during the demo phase of the project. The clients were in on the joke as well. Wouldn’t it be great to see their reaction?”

Henderson said he asked the homeowner’s permission prior to buying the skeleton, who has been nicknamed Skelly.

“They think it’s just as funny as everyone else,” he said.

Related: This 2-year-old proudly brings his bestie, a skeleton, everywhere with him

Another person in on the prank? Henderson’s son, Adrian, who loves Halloween.

“The day that I went and picked up the skeleton and brought him home, my 3-year-old son basically made friends with the skeleton the night before I took him to the job site,” Henderson said, adding that Skelly and Adrian bonded over watching television together and hanging out.

The prank has since been shared on viral meme accounts, but Strate told TODAY that it’s not unusual to find “time capsules” or “little odds and ends” while working on projects.

“We did a job not that long ago on a house that was built in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and there was a newspaper inside the wall,” Strate said. “Last year we did a job and we found naked pictures.”

Henderson said that before the project is done in a few weeks, he will seal Skelly inside the island with a note for whoever finds it.

“I’m looking forward to 30 years from now, seeing this on the news, sitting back in my chair and laughing,” he said.

As for Adrian, who had bonded with his dad’s skeletal surprise — he now has his own bony buddy to take on adventures.

“He got pretty attached,” mom Dallas Henderson said of Adrian’s short-lived relationship with Skelly. “So he needed his own.”