I lived in a rural area, one time my cousins and I did the purse thing as well, except we found a black snake and put in it. A car load of boys in an old beat up station wagon spotted it. They went up the road turned around came back for it. They didn't even stop and the guy in the front passenger side jumps out and snatches it up. They were yelling they had money now and were going to the store. Then we hear them yell "Snake!" All four door open and it looked like a clown car at the circus with all the bodies coming out. Driver didn't even put it in park. There were guys in the back too, trying to get out. The car coasted to a stop in a ditch about 50 yards down the road. My cousins and I had climbed a tree to watch, and we almost fell out from trying not to laugh. Fortunately, we were not spotted.
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One of my cousins, a female, would get a random number out of the phone book and call. She would say: "Mrs. Smith? This is the operator. We one have one of our linemen doing work on your phone line for the next 5 minutes. Please do not answer the phone for then next 5 minutes it will electrocute the lineman."
Mrs. Smith would say ok and my cousin would remind them don't answer the phone or it will shock the lineman.
About 3 minutes later my cousin would call back and Mrs Smith would answer. My cousin's brother would scream in the phone like he was being shocked. Mrs. Smith would usually shout too and abruptly hang up.
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In HS we would jack up a friend's car (usually a girl) and put watermelon rinds under the rear wheel. Then we would put a small rock under the front tires so it wouldn't move. The person would come out to their car and crank it up, put it in reverse and it wouldn't go anywhere, the tires would spin. They would gun it and tires would still spin. If they got out to see what was wrong, most of the time they could not see the watermelon rinds. They would get back in the car and try to go forward, nothing. Eventually we would come and push their car off.