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40-foot humpback whale found in Farmington? Not so much.

Early Monday morning, it seemed that the city of Farmington had a whale of a problem on its hands.

Thanks to a faux news story from the World News Daily Report, quite a number of people were fooled into thinking that the remains of a whale had been discovered near the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

|@DavisCountySO has whale of a tale on its hands. No, there's no #humpback in #Farmington. http://t.co/0nUCkLfHJM pic.twitter.com/932mhhGOZN

— FOX 13 NOW (@fox13now) December 8, 2014

The story reads:

“A dairy farmer from a small town near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, made an incredible discovery on his property while he was looking for one of his cows that had not returned. 69-year old Michael Woodson, found a 12 meter long humpback whale laying lifeless in the middle of one of his fields, hundreds of kilometers away its natural habitat.”

The story the writers at the World News Daily Report wove was a solid yarn.

“The Farmington City Police was called on the site to investigate, since the farmer thought that the cetacean could have been left there as a creepy prank by some neighborhood youngsters. The investigators rapidly dismissed the possibility however, as no traces of vehicles or machinery large enough to carry it were found anywhere near the animal. The police admits that they are almost clueless at the moment as to how the marine mammal found its way on Mr. Woodson’s property.”

Believe it or not, some people were actually fooled by this story! While any Utahn knows the presence of a whale in the Great Salt Lake, let alone a field in Farmington, is just impossible, it seems that a few people bought the story as real news.

According to Fox 13’s coverage of this “news” story, the Farmington area police dispatch was flooded with calls about the whale, and even Fox’s newsroom had a few phone calls.

But some people just didn’t realize it was a hoax.

http://t.co/0KLRGYosOM <—- this is actually interesting. #whale #field #weird

— SI☰RR▲ BRΘΘK☰ (@WooahItsSierra) December 8, 2014

Skeptical of the truth of this and I haven’t read the article… I’m only posting this so I can make a reference… http://t.co/UeNpkVeKAR — Steven Archer (@egolikeness) December 8, 2014

Now this is crazy http://t.co/vI3BEeebkr

— The Zombie Killer (@Rexx_Reed) December 8, 2014

aliens are real. how else would that whale be in the middle of a farm in Utah with no evidence of it getting there? — zackary (@zaack_13) December 8, 2014

Faux news sites keep getting craftier as time goes on, and a story about a whale in Utah is definitely a great way to get people riled up about absolutely nothing.

Just remember, if the story is too fantastical or good to be true, then it probably is. In the meantime, watch out for whales in fields!