LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (CNN) -- Reports of wild cats taking people's pets led to a prank gone awry in Southern California.
Beverly Bradham panicked when she saw, what looked like to her, a looked like a mountain lion sleeping in the yard next door.
Police and Animal Control rushed to Bradham's Laguna Beach home after she called 9-1-1. It turns out the giant cat was stuffed.
Dirk Larson had lent it to Bradham's neighbor. Larson says, "As a joke we thought, 'Well, let's put it in the neighbor's yard, and scare the neighbor's wife. Well, before the neighbor could come home, another neighbor saw the mountain lion, called the police. Next thing you know, we have Animal Control and police here."
Laguna Beach police say they recently notified residents about a bobcat snatching domesticated cats in the area. Bradham says she called the 9-1-1 operator back to apologize after realizing the lion was fake.
But the operator actually got a kick out of the false alarm. She told Bradham that hearing about the prank "made her day."