Car-alarm video worth $10,000

CULPEPER -- An amusing prank caught on video involving a faulty car alarm and a couple of "Hidden Honkers" won three Bealeton friends $10,000 -- and two trips to ABC Studios in California.

Dana McAnallen, a 2009 graduate of Liberty High School in Fauquier, sent the winning entry to "America's Funniest Videos" this summer. She's also the one who got pranked.

"It was just so funny," said McAnallen, a freshman at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. "I put it on my Facebook page and got so much positive feedback, so I thought why not send it into 'America's Funniest Videos.'"

She didn't think anything would come of it, though -- until one day in August, ABC called and they were on their way to the West Coast for the show's taping.

On Sunday night, McAnallen appeared on AFV with her two friends/pranksters.

Their video, spanning a minute and 11 seconds, was named the night's big winner.

"It's a $10,000 prank and you'll be back for the $100,000 show later in the season," said AFV host Tom Bergeron. "Nicely done."

Though NASCAR ran over its allotted time slot and the full video didn't air Sunday on ABC, check it out on YouTube by searching for "Dana got GOT."

So how did it all happen?

The day before the video was shot this summer, McAnallen's car alarm was acting up, and she had left her video camera at her friend's house.

So when she pulled into the driveway of that friend's home in Bealeton, Garlyn Bell and Brittany Gwathmey were waiting, unseen, in a car with tinted windows, camera in hand.

That's when the "Hidden Honkers" -- as ABC called the segment -- went to work.

"She probably didn't see nobody," said Bell on the video, already starting to laugh.

The first time he and Gwathmey honked the horn, McAnallen, almost to the front door of the house, turned around as if her car alarm was acting up again. She pointed her remote at her car, pressed the buttons and turned back around.

Honk! Repeat above scenario.

Honk! McAnallen, still unaware, re-pointed the remote at her car, getting frustrated.

"Every time I thought it was my car alarm going off and it was actually them honking their horn," she told the Star-Exponent Monday, being a good sport. "I didn't expect them to be outside," let alone outside with a hidden video camera.

Three more times, her friends pressed the horn on their car before McAnallen realized the actual origin of the racket.

"She really thinks it's her car," says Bell, nearly hysterical by this point.

Wearing a Liberty High School sweatshirt on the video, McAnallen finally discovered the "Hidden Honkers," pointing toward her friends with a chagrined look on her face.

However, there's no shame in winning $10,000, or getting an all-expenses paid trip to the Manhattan Beach Marriott, right next to ABC Studios.

The trio of friends decided it was only fair to split the money since they were all involved. Last weekend, they flew back to California for taping of the AFV $100,000 finale, although "Hidden Honkers" did not win again.