50 Cent fans show up to Mt. Trashmore

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A local radio station's April Fools' Day prank doesn't have the Virginia Beach Police Department laughing.

Z104 fooled some folks by spending several days promoting that recording artist 50 Cent would be shooting a music video at Mount Trashmore Thursday night.  They even told people that if they brought a demo tape 50 Cent would listen to it.

Robert Brown, who drove out from Chesapeake with demo in hand, was just one of many who showed up with high hopes.  And he was not happy.  "These are people's dreams.  I was really hopeful and now I'm really disappointed," said Brown.

Nick, Tricia and Shaggy of Z104's morning show explained how they pulled off the prank.  They told WAVY.com that six months ago 50 really was in their studio and he loved the idea of the prank and was more than willing to record a "joke" interview promoting his Mt. Trashmore video shoot. 

Nick said, "I have been in radio for 10 years and I've always wanted to do this prank and all the planets aligned for us to do it."

When city officials in Virginia Beach confirmed the "video shoot" was really an April Fools' Day hoax, they posted the following message on their Twitter page regarding the bogus video shoot: "Hi folks! 50 Cent will NOT be @ Mt. Trashmore this evening. The supposed video shoot was an April Fools' Day prank by a local radio station."

Officer Adam Bernstein with Virginia Beach Police said, "It was a joke and we appreciate that.  But, as a police department we have to worry about crowd control and traffic, even if it is a hoax you might have thousands of people show up anyway."

According to 50 Cent's Website , he's actually in Russia.