A man from Quang Nam province is in hot water this week after writing a false news story that went viral on social media. The tale's scandalous contents? Mermaids.
Last Sunday, with some extra time on his hands, local resident Pham Dac Hau posted a lengthy story on his website, quangnamonline.com.vn, about a group of local fishermen who captured a 48-kilo mermaid by drugging the mythical creature and hauling her out of the water with a net. Photos were included because of course they were.
Both the story and Hau's website have since been taken down by authorities, Tuoi Tre reports, however you've got to give the 37-year-old mobile phone repairman points for imagination.
According to Hau's story, local fishermen spotted the mermaid sunbathing on multiple occasions before trapping her and bringing her ashore. The creature was then taken to a nearby hospital, “pending studies by US scientists”. In the story, a wealthy Japanese man also offered the fishermen US$1 million for the mermaid but was refused.
Once published, Hau's story took social media by storm, drawing the attention of Vietnamese netizens. Unfortunately for Hau, the tale also made its way to Quang Nam authorities, for whom mythical sea creatures are no laughing matter. Thanks to some first-class investigative work, the police were able to uncover inaccuracies in the account.
“The mermaid story had quickly gone viral on the internet and Facebook before local authorities identified it was totally made up,” writes Tuoi Tre.
After tracking down the story's author, Quang Nam police brought Hau in for questioning. He confessed to repurposing a Hanoian couple's deeply unusual wedding photos to illustrate his story, which he invented “out of fun”. For those of you with impeccable vision – or, really, just vision – you'll notice the blurred-out watermark of the wedding photographer in each of the images.
However now that the real police work has been done, and Quang Nam authorities are confident in the nonexistence of mermaids, a lingering question remains: why was Hau summoned in the first place? This is really anybody's guess – including the Quang Nam police department.
“We have reviewed many legal documents, none of which regulate such a situation so we are very confused,” Tuoi Tre quoted a department inspector as saying.
For the moment, Hau must work with Quang Nam's internal security police – news reports don't specify how – as authorities determine which law he's violated.
“The department is still working with [Hau] to establish his act and decide on the punishment as per the law,” Vo Van Tho, deputy director of Quang Nam's Department of Information and Communications, told Tuoi Tre.
In the meantime, we can all rest easy knowing the crack team in charge of central Vietnam's internet security are on the job.
[Photos via Tuoi Tre]
