LAPD not laughing after 'coke' prank fools officers

The young men had their car outfitted with cameras so they could film the triumphant moment they fooled police into making a sham drug bust.

And two officers took the bait.

Footage posted on YouTube Monday and viewed more than half a million times shows the four pranksters sitting listlessly in their car on Venice Beach, in the US state of California.

They are approached by a pair of police officers and then do their best to act suspicious.

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," he says.

"It's not ours. We were just bringing it to a friend."

The officers appear low-key and professional as they ask the men to step out of the car and handcuff them.

But the coke in question was Coca-Cola and a search of the boot turns up only cans of soda covered by a blanket.

The Los Angeles Police Department was not amused.

"The public has a right to have their police officers working and not wasting their time responding to juvenile pranks," said Commander Andrew Smith, according to NBC News.