RADIO MAN’S HOAX CAUSES PANIC IN AMERICAN TOWN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22869, 12 February 1949, Page 5

RADIO MAN’S HOAX CAUSES PANIC IN AMERICAN TOWN

(11 a.m.) NEW YORK, Feb. 11. The entire population of Willmar, Minnesota, was thrown into panic last night when a bored radio announcer broadcast “just for fun” a report that a trainload of wild animals had broken loose and were prowling around the town in search of stray bodies. The announcer, Maurice D. Hargo, dramatically announced that a circus train, stalled in a blizzard, had pulled into Willmar and its wiid animals had stampeded from their pens, trampling a railway employee so badly that he was sent to hospital with several broken ribs. He told all the citizens to turn on the lights in their homes to frighten the animals away and warned everyone to keep off the streets. At a crucial moment of his broad cast the fire alarm blew because of a fire in a local dairy and the populace feared the worst They frantically telephoned each other and arranged to meet at a strategic spot to combat the wild beasts in strength. One sleepy householder stumbled into the police station armed • ith a rifle and loaded down with ammunition and crying: ‘Where are the critters?” Many citizens, afraid to go to bed, stayed up all night fearing the wild animals would burst into their homes. By early morning the police p'.anaged to soithe the populace by broadeasting messages that no animals were loose. The police chief, Mr. Joseph Jaconsen, said r>t. did not plan to prosecute ihe announcer “because I don’t know what to charge him with. I don’t like this sort of thing though,” he added. The explanation was “I didn't think anybody was listening.”