Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe Bear-ly Escapes Bathroom Prank

Virginia has a history of former governors' setting up their successors.

ByABC News

January 14, 2014, 11:43 AM

Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell left a giant bear in the bathroom as a practical joke on newly inaugurated Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Office of the Governor of Virginia

Jan. 14, 2014 -- That's a real (but dead) black bear in Terry McAuliffe's bathroom.

The newly inaugurated Virginia governor got a few surprises from his predecessor, Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. Continuing the proud tradition of gubernatorial pranks in the commonwealth, McAuliffe opened the private bathroom in his office on the first day of his term as governor to find a giant taxidermied bear.

When former Gov. Mark Warner left office in 2006, he left a (clothed) cardboard cutout of himself in the shower for his successor, Tim Kaine, to find.

Later as he prepared to leave the governor's mansion, Kaine hid cellphones in the elevator shaft of the governor's mansion to spook McDonnell.

This year, McDonnell didn't only leave the life-sized bear for McAuliffe to find. He also hid an alarm clock in the governor's mansion set to an hour that would jolt most people out of their slumber: 4:00 a.m.

But not this governor; McAuliffe, who is a known early riser, was already awake by then.