Associated Press

FARGO - A California artist and self-proclaimed hoaxer says he's having fun with lost-and-found ads, and he hopes others are, too.

Rory Emerald, 38, of Anaheim, who also goes by the name Julian Lee Hobbs, said he has been hitting newspapers across the country with ridiculous lost-and-found ads since June.

One that ran Thursday in The Forum newspaper classified section said:

"FOUND on Fargo Ranch: Elvis Presley's Original Tour Bus w/many personal items still inside. In order to claim, must identify."

Emerald said the impetus for his ads was the Michael Jackson trial. He said he got tired of seeing bad news on TV.

He called the newspaper closest to Jackson's home, the Santa Barbara News-Press, and placed and ad that read: "FOUND: Near Neverland Ranch, prosthetic nose."

A dozen or more listings followed, each unique to a different newspaper, each followed by Emerald's phone number. They ranged from mentioning a baby panda found near the San Diego Zoo that "desperately needs mother" to an ad for Marilyn Monroe's personal diary.

Emerald said he enjoys the responses and tells callers up front about the joke. The Elvis bus got such a wild response, he said, that he has been letting his answering machine take most of the calls.

"It's off the charts," he said of the number of calls.

Emerald, who said he has a 9-year-old daughter, insisted he does it for readers. When he first thought of the Elvis bus story, he said, he wondered where such a find might hide for decades and suddenly turn up.

The Michigan native told The Forum that he faintly recalled visiting North Dakota as a child.

"The people there probably would like to see something funny, something interesting," he recalled thinking. "I think it was a very good choice, actually."

In placing the ad, he pretended to be a relative of a North Dakota state legislator who wanted to take the calls in California. He also pretended to be a woman.

The ad person took the request and made a few checks to verify the contact information, said Sandy Olsen, the newspaper's inside sales manager. The employee called the number given for the ad, and Emerald answered.

After curious readers began their calls, Emerald said, he even got reports of Elvis sightings in Fargo.

"People don't want to believe in God, but they'll believe there's a bus somewhere in Fargo, North Dakota," he said. "Today I was able to do something that made a lot of people happy."

One caller introduced himself as Gov. John Hoeven and asked where the bus was, Emerald said. Hoeven spokesman Don Canton laughed when asked if the governor might have made such a call.

"I very much doubt it," he said.

Information from: The Forum, http://www.in-forum.com