A long time ago (circa 1999) in a galaxy far, far away (Rochester, NY) my friend Dave and I sat around his apartment on a biter cold winter night twiddling our thumbs and contemplating our navels.  Boredom in winter is a rite of passage for RIT students dating back to my father's time there, and, no doubt, well beyond.  As we stared out of his living room window into the cold, bleak, snow covered parking lot searching in vain for anything that could even vaguely be considered entertainment I had what could only be described as an epiphany.

"Dave," I said, "let's pull a prank."
"OK.  Like what?"
"I... hang on," I replied.

My brain grabbed furiously for traction out of its stupor as ideas suddenly began springing forth, half formed.  Suddenly, it all fell together for me, the perfect combination of juvenile humor with a dash of geek flair.

"Do you currently have, in your possession, a 555 timer, some resistors, a breadboard, and a 9v battery?" I inquired.
Dave, being the engineering student that he was, replied in the affirmative.
"Yeah, of course.  Why?"
"Dude.  If you put all of that in line with a doorbell... what would happen after you rang it?"

I failed to suppress a giggle as I watched Dave's eyes light up with realization.  Calculations would need to be done but what I had just proposed was a device that would, once the button for the doorbell was initially pressed, continue to ring the doorbell once every sixty seconds until either the battery died or it was discovered.

"The 161?" he asked, indicating the apartment across the street inhabited by four of our friends.
"The 161," I replied.

Out came the parts box as Dave quickly designed the circuit and began to build it, I pulled the panel off of his identical apartment doorbell to test.  Hysterical laughter followed shortly thereafter as we listened to the doorbell ring of its own accord once per minute while Dave's roommates looked at us as if we were mildly retarded.  Which probably wasn't too far removed from the truth.

Donning our coats, we ran out the door and across the street to consummate our sophomoric prank.  I quickly removed the plate for the button and Dave hooked the contraption up.  I crammed everything into the wall as best I could, leaving only a small loop of wire poking out in my giddy haste.  I punched the doorbell and Dave and I sprinted out of the lobby and hurled ourselves behind a snowbank like two soldiers into a foxhole.

We poked our heads up over our concealed vantage point just as our friend Justin opened the door.  We stifled laughter as he looked around, shrugged, and closed the door.  Forty five seconds later we watched the scene play out again, except this time Justin appeared considerably more baffled.  Again, we fought off the laughter.  One more time, the door opened and this time Justin actually walked around the lobby, including going up the stairs to the second floor to look for the perpetrators.  Dave and I lost all semblance of self control and began laughing so hard the tears streamed down our faces only to freeze in place.  This time, Justin had taken so long trying to find the mystery ringers the bell rang right as he approached his door.  Right then he noticed the little bit of wire dangling from the plate and Dave and I realized the gig was up.  We stood up from our hiding spot and waved.  Justin countered with a gesture I can only assume was to inform us that we were, indeed, number one.

I don't think Dave ever did get his parts back.