Valley Report Fake News Item Goes Viral
An image taken from the page of a fake news story, in which a woman defecates on her boss' desk after winning the lottery. The Valley Report

A recent news story that became a viral smash, detailing how a woman defecated on her boss' desk after winning the lottery and amassed tens of thousands of views in the process, has since been revealed as a fake by the story's author. Dave Weasel – who runs The Valley Report, a spoof news site like The Onion and The Daily Mash –admitted to BuzzFeed that the story had been fabricated, but was also one of the best stories to have been published on the site.

"This one just really took off, getting hits and shares from all over the place" he commented to the site. "It's kind of annoying because I really do enjoy doing the ones that offer some social commentary" he stated, referring to the fact that Valley News runs satirical opinion led editorial pieces, as well as hoax news stories.

The piece, headlined Woman arrested for defecating on boss' des after winning the lottery' was the site's most popular article in the site's nine-month history. Reportedly, Valley News earns Weasel "thousands of dollars per month from ads".

Within the fabricated story, a 41 year old woman netted a $3m (£2.08m) jackpot prize, before deciding to deliver "one last special package" to her fictional courier firm boss. "I've been putting up with that guy's s**t for years, it's time he put up with some of mine," the woman was quoted as saying in the story.

Weasel, who is based in Los Angeles, stated that he thought the majority of people that read the article believed it to be true on first read. But he claimed that, "Most of the people that share it do not read it."

When asked what is his secret to getting internet traffic, Weasel said, "Women are crazy, but men are stupid, but women are crazy because men are stupid. And when you follow that for these articles, it's going to be a hit."

"Also, anything to do with going to the bathroom," he added.