Real shark plus fake leg equals expensive hoax
Last Updated: Monday, August 13, 2007 | 9:22 AM AT
CBC News
Now, here's a fish tale. It all began as a bit of fun, but ended up being investigated by the RCMP.
Fishermen were on the Georges Bank, near the U.S. border, on Sunday morning when they caught a shark. They thought it would be funny to stick a fake leg in the shark's mouth and take pictures.
Problem was, fishermen on a nearby vessel took it seriously, and called the Canadian Coast Guard. Then the coast guard called the Mounties. That's when the prank really got out of hand.
"It's kind of an expensive hoax," Const. Joe Taplin, an RCMP spokesman, said Sunday.
"You've got the RCMP on this side (of the border) getting ready and calling in extra personnel to take possession of this, as well as U.S. authorities were aware that it was possibly a human leg," he said.
"So, there was interest on both sides of the border. But, it was just a hoax, fishermen joking around out there that got escalated to actually having the coast guard go out."
The coast guard confirmed it was just a wooden leg, Taplin said, and it's unlikely anyone will face penalties.
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