The Greatest Prank to Go Unnoticed

I've just wrapped up ten days in the Big Apple, New York City. 

Our travel party included: my grandmother, Queen Pat, who had never been and decided that at 89, she was finally ready; my friend Amy, with whom I would perform in a NY Improv Festival; and our friend Daren, aka Dazzler, who had wanted to go in April but then tweaked his schedule when he heard we were all going, and wouldn't it be more fun to party on as a big group?

Thing about Dazzler though, is that he wanted to keep his American jaunt secret, so he could pop up in the States and surprise all his friends on Facebook.

Whaddya gonna do? Spoil his big thing? So Amy and I kept radio silence.

Daren turned up in Los Angeles and posted, but didn't mention he was joining us in New York.

So we concocted an awesome photo bombing plan, that turned the first few days of our trip into a game of 'Where's Dazzler?'

For reference, here is Dazzler in NY:

And here are the shots Amy and I took and posted on Facebook, just waiting for somebody to ping to the ruse.

Times Square:

Empire State Building:

Statue of Liberty:

In a Broadway theatre:

And in front of the PIT theatre, home of the Improv festival:

But nobody pinged! People on Facebook kept liking our pictures, but nobody seem to work out that the bloke in the striped beanie seemed to show up a lot.

Eventually we posted a video where Daren derides the great art of Impro (jokingly of course - well, I think), and a few people liked it.

POSTSCRIPT

Once Amy left us in New York, Daren and I made a silly 'We miss you' picture.

I've just met up with Amy in Edinburgh, where she now lives. So we decided to replicate:

After posting that on Facebook this morning, I received a brilliant response from my friend Scott:

Hats off to you sir, some fine work. I hope this means our awesome prank did tickle people's fancies.