Screenshots of what appears to be an online article about a woman stealing 24 dogs from a kill shelter has gone viral.
this girl is my new hero
This particular tweet has generated tens of thousands of shares in just a few hours, with people not only buying into the story, but being inspired by it.
People have been tagging their friends and calling the subject of the story a "hero."
The tweet has now been retweeted more than 17,000 times.
The supposed article is about a woman from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who was arrested for stealing 24 dogs. It claims that she adopted all the dogs after being released.
Well, it turns out that not only is this entire story fabricated, the subject of the article, Joyce Colon, has even come out and admitted that it's a hoax.
Colon explained to BuzzFeed News that she wrote the fake story as a joke for her friends. The original link to her self-created article has gotten over 1,000 shares since Friday.
"I thought it would be funny because everyone knows how much I love dogs so I figured it would be kind of believable," she said.
But on Monday, the story instantly and randomly blew up.
"I woke up to an insane amount of texts of Twitter screenshots and Facebook notifications," Colon said.
And people are continuing to fall for, and share, the story.
this girl is my new hero
Girl in NC stole 24 dogs from a shelter because they were going to be euthanized and then adopted them all. Not all heroes wear capes.
My sister thought it was me when she saw the headline. This lady stole 24 dogs from the shelter because they were b… https://t.co/4SHjfWo2s2
Colon said she feels bad for lying about the story, even if it originated as a joke, but she did learn about "the true power of social media."
"I know there are dogs out there that need homes and I wish I could," she said.