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Florida Sheriff Denies Rumors That Local Man Was Kidnapped by Dolphins

An online rumor from the start of March has circulated, saying a man rambled to police about being forced to build condos for dolphins.

People all around the world have always dreamed of an elusive underwater civilization. Take Atlantis for example, the mythical drowned city first mentioned by Plato. But, according to an online rumor, one man has seen this underwater civilization for real... And worse, he was forced to build it with his bare hands.

As reported by Dexerto, the crazy online rumor spread after

fake news accounts touted that a Florida man told police officers he was kidnapped by dolphins. Posts said he claimed they forced him to partake in the building of their secretive underwater society.

The rumor first started spreading in early March. Accounts claimed a man was found by Lee County deputies on the beach "soaked, dehydrated, and drawing blueprints in the sand". And apparently the man rambled to the authorities that he was kidnapped by dolphins. They apparently dragged him down "40 feet" to build "cities, towns, and condo-like buildings" for three days straight.

But it's not just these claims that were fake. The whole story was! There was no dolphin-stricken man in the first place. It was all just a fake news ruse.

How disappointing, right? But, I guess it's good no one was actually insane enough to be saying all these things in the first place.

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The Lee County Sheriff's Office Posted About the Dolphin Hoax

In a playful display, the Lee County Sheriff's Office latched onto the strange dolphin man rumors. In a post on

Facebook, they poked fun at the whole incident.

The post reads, "While living in Lee County is paradise - we can confidently confirm the underwater real estate market has not been tapped into...yet. We checked with our newly implemented Underwater Construction Investigation Team and learned the dolphins of our oceans deny any involvement."

Signing off the post, they made sure everyone knew that "no dolphins were harmed in the making of this rumor."

Comments on the post were equally funny. One commenter wrote "The dolphins of the under water city got him to smoke some good s***." And another wrote "That's why I live in Colorado, they can't get me here."

While it's admittedly a very funny turn of events, with this post, fake news has proven itself to be everywhere.