Southern Calif. man stages April Fool's plane joke

Southern California businessman stages phony small plane crash as April Fool's prank

YUCAIPA, Calif. (AP) -- It's the plane crash that wasn't in Southern California.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports (http://bit.ly/YQ8fyA ) a Yucaipa businessman staged an elaborate April Fool's joke on Monday.

Billy Cheesman Jr. used a forklift to arrange a small aircraft on the fence that runs in front of his equipment rental business, as if it had nosedived there.

He also strung yellow caution tape around to make it resemble a crash scene.

Cheesman says someone gave him the two-seat experimental plane and he's been trying to figure out what to do with it.

He notified the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department before he set up the prank at Redlands Yucaipa Rentals.

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Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com