Acting the goat: WA police officers’ April Fool’s Day Facebook prank

Shark Bay Police are hoping to re-unite a stray “goat” with its owner.

At least, you could be forgiven for thinking that if you scrolled through their Twitter feed this morning.

Early today officers posted pictures of what appeared to be a member of the animal family Bovidae — thanks, Google — making itself familiar with the station.

The images were accompanied with the following message:

“Shark Bay Police would like to find the owner of this friendly goat. The boss looked after him last night but would love to reunite him with his owner.”

After a close look and a quick call to the station, The Midwest Times can reveal the post was, in fact, a hoax.

“It’s just a bit of an April Fool’s joke,” Constable Richard Butterworth admitted.

“Basically, you go onto google and you type in an animal — so you could put tiger down, for example — and then you scroll down and there’s a little button you can press where you can view it as a 3D animal on photos and stuff like that.”

The post was promptly shared on the Midwest-Gascoyne District Police Facebook page, where more than a few followers were apparently fooled.

“Not yours I hope,” wrote Brooke Creemers to a friend.

Meanwhile, Meg Forrester tagged a friend and happily declared: “Hahah Albert is safe and at home!!!”