bentley lucky dog.jpg

A photo of a three-legged dog that a prankster group distributed to media outlets as part of a hoax, claiming him to be a dog named "Lucky" that a Hoboken woman had recently lost.

(Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue)

A WABC-TV Eyewitness news story about a Hoboken woman who lost her three-legged dog, Lucky, elicited the concerns of thousands of people who came across it -- and fooled them too, apparently, according to a man who identified himself as a member of the prankster group that devised the hoax.

The fake story, which was released yesterday, was followed up earlier today with an update by WABC-TV stating that a Hoboken resident helped the woman get her dog back after seeing WABC-TV's Facebook post about Lucky.

But there is no lost three-legged dog named Lucky, a man who identified himself as Gabe Athaus told The Jersey Journal in an email earlier today.

The dog in the photo is real, Athaus said, but his name is Bentley, and his photo comes from an Oct. 2008 post on an online forum, which is further linked to volunteer nonprofit group Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue.

In media reports, the woman who supposedly lost the dog was identified as Jennifer Gronkowski, the alleged sister-in-law of New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

But there is no Jennifer Gronkowski, Athaus said.

"Rob Gronkowski had nothing to do with it but we did have his permission to use his name, one of us went to school with his brother Dan," Athaus said. "Jennifer Gronkowski is a made up name...a long drawn out name is always a home run, adds to the belief that the person is real."

Athaus, 43, of Chelsea, N.Y. said the prank was inspired by a gag in the 1940s in which a posting for a lost dog reads: "Lost Dog - 3 legs, left ear fell off, broken tail, limps all over, deaf in one ear, responds to the name Lucky."

"I can't believe how everyone fell for it. It's the oldest joke in the book, slightly altered and everyone took the bait," he said at one point. "We just switched it around a little and it worked well."

He noted that the fake story was first sent to the city of Hoboken's Facebook page and took off from there, with tidbits such as a $5,000 award added to the tale later.

Five people in their late 30s to early 50s -- one living in Hoboken, another in Fairview, two in New York City and one in California -- engineered the hoax for a show that is slated to come out on Comedy Central in winter 2014, Athaus said.

Another prank the group devised was the Twitter rant about a woman on an airplane who turned out to be just as nonexistent as Jennifer Gronkowski, Athaus told The Jersey Journal, hinting that Elan Gale, a producer on ABC's The Bachelor, is part of the group.

He said most members of the prankster group, besides him, wished to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons, including the possibility of upsetting people.