Crowds gathered around the Forster breakwall on Friday afternoon as the Westpac Rescue Helicopter landed near the Marine Rescue tower at about 1.45pm.

The chopper had been alerted to a distress beacon operating off the coast and the crew used homing equipment to track it – not to a boat in need of assistance – but to bushes at the base of a Forster cliff.

Pilot Richard Nest said it appeared the beacon, which had likely been stolen from a vessel, had been activated and then thrown from the cliff top in the past few hours.

It had to be retrieved by the rescue crew and switched off, as it would continue to broadcast to the satellite, disrupting other messages, and would even be picked up by commercial aircraft flying through the area, he said.

The “malicious prank”, as Mr Nest called it, cost taxpayers up to $8000.

The three-man Westpac Rescue Helicopter crew was called out to respond from Newcastle by the central Canberra office, while local Marine Rescue personnel were also called in to search for the beacon.

Reaction on the Advocate Facebook page to the news: It would be great to find the person(s) responsible and then name and shame them. Spontaneous fun can be very costly. They need to be made to pay for the costs involved in bringing the rescue squad and helicopter to find it - Lorraine Tilley.

Totally appalling, ‘idiots’ is too kind of a word to describe these people - Craig Anthony Priestly.

I hope if the perpetrator(s) ever need it, they get treated like it's a prank - Simone Densley.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf is still a very important story to be passed along to our children. People need to understand that this stupid kind of 'prank' could have gotten others killed who may have needed this chopper. How would they feel about being responsible for others’ deaths? - Lauren Gardner