I read this in yesterdays newspaper feuilleton and it made me laugh. It is quite the little annecdote.
A little provincial theatre in northern france wanted to stir some excitement for their new theatreproduction and sent several small black cardboard coffins with a bullet in it to journalists in the region. In the box was also a note that said "You'll have a date with Ben and Gus soon". Ben and Gus are professional hitmen - out of a play by Harold Pinter called "the dumb waiter". The journalists called the police because they felt they had recieved a threat to their lives. The police department in Boulogne-sur-Mer opened an investigation.
It turnes out that the artistic director of the theatre thought that the whole cardboard coffin thing would be very clever and funny and insisted that he and his actors weren't dangerous criminals. They wanted to entice critics and journalists to come and watch their play.
Unbelievable. Imagine you recieve a little black coffin in the mail with a bullet and a threatening note in it about an impending visit by hitmen, which is easily found out with a little research... and then it is all a _prank_ or rather a clumsy attempt at promotional PR. I'd be pissed off. But it is a good story to tell.