Harrods has become the target of a Christmas hoax that has gone viral.
Poke News ran a story on its website describing how a former Harrods employee took revenge against the high-end department store after they fired him from his job as Father Christmas.
Employee Lloyd Hudson, 35, who doesn’t really exist, was said to have got drunk and then gained access to Harrods’ maintenance control room, in which he switched off some the store’s 10,000 exterior lights.
The lights he left on spelt out F*CK OFF.
The fictional story went on to say that the man was removed by security guards after an hour-long stand-off.
The story has since gone viral after readers shared it on social media networks and twitter. It even made it into mainstream media after journalists failed to check the facts with Harrods.
Eventually a spokesman for the store revealed that it was a joke.
