Another case of “I read it on the internet so it must be true.” The Internet spoof site, World News Daily Report posted “Mysterious Remains of A Whale Found in a Field in Utah” in which it claims dairy farmer, Michael Woodson, from Farmington, Utah found a 12 meter long humpback whale laying lifeless in the middle of one of his fields. “We have to admit that we find this case very puzzling” said Captain Terry Dawson from the Farmington police.

Of course, there was no humpback whale in the Utah field, nor is there a dairy farmer named Woodson nor a police officer named Dawson. The story, of course, was a joke, a spoof, an attempt at satire. Nevertheless, the Farmington Utah 911 emergency dispatch lines became tied up with calls from residents asking about the humpback whale.

The Farmington Police have now posted a note on their Facebook page: Attention: ‪#‎DCSO‬ has not responded to any whales in the middle of farmers fields. We do not have any information at all about this article. Thank you for your concern, but please refrain from calling our dispatchers about it. It appears to be a hoax, or at least not Farmington, Utah.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing along the whale’s tale.