Friends carry out elaborate treasure chest prank at Venice Beach

The prank required a lot of digging, but four friends who buried a treasure chest full of gold coins only to "discover" it the next day created quite a stir on Venice Beach in California.

The four friends loaded a large treasure chest on the top of their car and drove to Venice Beach, collecting multiple Harry Potter references from people they met along the way. At 2 a.m., they went to the beach, dug a giant hole and buried about $100 worth of chocolate coins in the sand.

The next day, the friends went back to the beach with a metal detector and pretended to find their treasure again. As they dug it up, a crowd gathered to watch and help.

Despite an interruption from an official who wanted them to stop digging until the contents of the chest could be checked out, eventually they revealed the coins and shared them with the crowd.

"Thanks to all of those who provided us with their footage afterwards and to those who fell for it and made this video worth more than gold," the video description says.