The Los Angeles Police Department isn't laughing about a videotaped prank involving a "coke" sale that they say misused police resources, was misleading and potentially dangerous.
The video, titled "Coke Prank on Cops," was posted to YouTube on Monday with the caption, "officer we have some coke in our trunk." By 3 a.m. ET Thursday the video had been watched more than 440,000 times.
The coke in question was Coca-Cola — but no one told that to two Pacific Division officers who encountered the pranksters in Venice Beach, California. In the video, the officers begin to question the men, who are sitting in a SUV outfitted with cameras on the dash and the trunk. When one of the men is asked to step out of the car, a passenger in the back appears to crack: "I can't do this I can't do this, we have a bunch of coke in the back...it's not ours we were just bringing it to a friend."
The officers appear professional and low-key as they ask the men to step out of the car and handcuff them. A search of the trunk, however, turns up numerous sodas covered by a blanket. Commander Andrew Smith of the LAPD was less than impressed. "It is dangerous for the participants involved and a huge waste of a police officer's time," he said. "The public has a right to have their police officers working and not wasting their time responding to juvenile pranks."
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