MORGANTOWN — April Fools’ has a way of sneaking up on the unsuspecting like a grizzly bear finding its way into the Boreman Hall courtyard.
A photo showing just that — a brown bear at Boreman North — was posted to wvubarstool on Instagram early Friday morning and received 6,800 likes in just 8 hours.
“This is my pic! Stay safe out there y’all,” posted user silkentine.
The Dominion Post reached out through direct message for more information and spoke with silkentine, aka Lauren White, a senior printmaking student at West Virginia University.
White said she works nights at Boreman and around 3 a.m. she was walking around the building doing her checks when she looked out a window and saw the perfect photo opportunity.
“Did you like have to do a double take or … ” this reporter asked, shocked by the photo of a large bear lurking near the dorm’s entrance.
“Not really, because I have to be the bearer of bad news,” White said. “It is a Photoshop.”
The perils of investigating social media claims for a job — sometimes you forget it’s April Fools’ Day. Unfortunately, the Boreman Bear, dubbed so by user elentbull, will not be joining the Sabraton Snake in Morgantown’s pantheon of legendary animals.
Before the photo started spreading on social media, White sent the photo to her boss who quickly wanted to call University Police, White said.
“And I was like wait, wait, wait,” White said.
Not everyone got caught by the bear trap.
“Yeah OK. To make it more believable, should’ve used an actual black bear,” wrote ml_ammons.
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