Surprise from the ex: how Virginia governors poke fun at their successors

In the state of Virginia, governors don't just leave their posts. They throw funny surprises to their successors, and this has already become a tradition. So a few "gifts" from the predecessor were waiting for the new governor at the residence.

Ralph Northam, who took office as governor of Virginia on January 13, 2018, stopped by the governor's residence on the evening after the inauguration. There he found some surprises from his predecessor, and it's not a box of chocolates at all.

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, apparently a man with humor, left pillows with pillowcases on the bed, which depict a smiling McAuliffe and one of his favorite sayings: "Sleep when you're dead" ("You'll get enough sleep in the next world"). The first night, the newly minted governor slept on a pillow with a grinning McAuliffe, and his wife still preferred a simple pillowcase.

But it wasn't limited to pillowcases alone. The ex-governor placed his portraits all over the house, besides, at three o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock rang, which Northam has not yet found.

It turned out that McAuliffe is not an innovator in the field of surprises for successors. His predecessor, Robert McDonnell, left an alarm clock set for four o'clock in the morning at the residence. But the main surprise was waiting for McAuliffe when he got to his office. In the toilet, the governor came across a huge bear. And it wasn't a plush toy at all, but a stuffed predator.

McDonnell, in turn, was surprised by his predecessor Tim Kane. He hid several cell phones in the elevator shaft and periodically called them. It took McDonnell's team several days to find the tubes. Mark Warner, the 69th governor of Virginia, played a joke on Kane. A life-size cardboard figure of Warner was waiting for Kane in the shower, and in the pose in which he always performed in public.