No, A Wombat Wasn't Wandering Around Reston After Escaping Zoo

RESTON, VA — Reston residents were clearly concerned after Wally the wombat escaped Roer's Zoofari in Reston on Sunday and were relieved to hear he'd been found on Wednesday, retweeting the updates 51 times and liking them 125 times on Twitter as of Thursday afternoon. The only problem is it never happened.

The @reston_zoo Twitter account, which links to the Roer's Zoofari website, posted July 11 that "our wombat has been missing since Sunday," and followed with several updates including photos purportedly of "Wally."

A bewildered staffer at Roer's Zoofari told us Thursday that they don't even have a wombat.

It appears that Roer's Zoofari's actual Twitter account is @RoersZoofari.

There are a few red flags with the @reston_zoo account. For one, it was just created on July 11. And the supposed picture of "Wally" posted to that account shows a wombat being held by a man who clearly has a patch on his shoulder for Balarat Wildlife Park in Australia.

Of course, why someone would run such a low-level hoax is beyond us. We've asked them what they're up to, but haven't heard back yet.

Image via Wikimedia user PanBK