Did 64-year-old Marius Hanson from Freeport, Illinois get hospitalized after eating 30 pounds of urinal cakes? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a Canadian entertainment website that makes a living by publishing fictional stories often involving weird crimes, bizarre sex acts or strange accidents. It is not real.
The story originated from an article published by World News Daily Report on January 21, 2019 titled "Binge eater hospitalized after gobbling up more than 30 lbs of urinal deodorizers" (archived here) which opened:
A man suffering from an eating disorder was hospitalized in a critical condition last night after his cravings led to ingest more than 60 deodorizer blocks designed for toilets.
64-year old Marius Hanson, from Freeport in Illinois, works as a janitor in a retirement home and he was found unconscious around 11 PM last night by one of his coworkers.
He's known for suffering from binge eating disorder (BED), which has led him to eat compulsively several things on his worksite in the past, including toilet paper, plastic syringes, disposable diapers, and even a couple of mops heads.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail and they would not have seen this was not a real news website:
Binge eater hospitalized after gobbling up more than 30 lbs of urinal deodorizers
A man suffering from an eating disorder was hospitalized in a critical condition last night after his cravings led to ingest more than 60 deodorizer blocks designed for toilets. 64-year old Marius Hanson, from Freeport in Illinois, works as a janitor in a retirement home and he was found unconsciou
The picture illustrating the story actually shows a man who just had a very large tumor removed:
'Fat' man actually had 130-lb. tumor
It looked like fat. 57-year-old Roger Logan's abdomen was so large the growth hung over his lower body like a boulder.
The website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:
World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.
It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.
Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes worldnewsdailyreport.com as:
A website that publishes hoaxes and made-up stories that are often widely shared and mistaken for news.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Court Did NOT Order Tiger Woods To Take 137 Paternity Tests
- Fake News: NO Drunk Demolition Worker Arrested After Blowing Up The Wrong Building
- Fake News: Doctor Did NOT Say Man Struck by Lightning Has Permanent Erection
- Fake News: Saudi Man Did NOT Eat Two Of His Four Wives To Survive 13 Days Stranded In The Desert
- Fake News: Saudi Man NOT Sentenced To 1000 Lashes For Performing Oral Sex On a Camel
