A drunk Serbian man reportedly has become a hero in Egypt

I saw this Tweet today from the New York Post: 


New York Post: Drunk Serbian man reportedly has become a hero in Egypt -- by accidentally killing a shark with his butt http://t.co/ztqqx9S


I bought it hook line and sinker (hee). I mean what a story! A Serbian man reportedly has become a hero in Egypt -- by accidentally killing a shark with his butt while drunk. The article says that one "Dragan Stevic" was soused to the gills (not my fish reference) while partying at the Red Sea resort Sharm El Sheikh when he he inadvertently felled the beast that had been terrorizing tourists for weeks.


Stevic reportedly cannonballed into the water from a high-diving board, according to a Macedonian news outlet. Instead of making a splash, he reportedly came down right on the shark's head, killing the toothed terror instantly.  The story goes on to say that "The fun-loving party boy was immediately touted as a local hero who saved tourist season, which had dried up after the shark had injured three people and killed one vacationer. Stevic swam to shore and is currently in the hospital recovering from alcohol poisoning."

 Read more from the New York Post.

What happens when an outlandish story goes viral? Is there a lesson here for emergency managers?  Of course!  Rumor control can be a full time job.  Social media can put rumors on steroids but it can also help quickly debunk urban legends like this. It took me about 5 seconds to find out that this was a hoax that several news organizations took to be real news.


According to "Carolina Beach Today it turns out that the original story shows a picture of the shark dead on the beach. That photo is apparently a shot of a Basking Shark which washed ashore near Duck, NC last year. 


This viral "news item" titled "Sharks Wary of Drunk Serbs" quickly became a popular search item leading people to the blog.  


The original story on a Macedonian site repored that:


“Dragan climbed on the jumping board, told me to hold his beer and simply ran to jump. There was no time for me to react or to try to stop him, he just went for it” says Milovan.
“Dragan jumped high and plunged down to the sea, but didn’t make as much splash as we thought he would”, explained Milovan.


To see the original English version of the story, go to: http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/17081/48/

I love satire... 

Steve

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