IT was a simple Twitter mistake that had a reporter ducking for cover.

Huffington Post journalist Ryan Reilly — who is covering the Ferguson riots in the US — made his Twitter followers do a double-take, check again to make sure he wasn’t joking, then double over in laughter.

It was all over this tweet.

I believe these are rubber bullets, can anyone confirm? #Fergurson pic.twitter.com/iCsFi6qoIa — Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 17, 2014

After some disbelieving responses, Reilly apologised, but not before a tonne of grade “A” mockery was served up to him via Twitter,

Here are some of the best.

.@ryanjreilly Hey bro, I'm trying to load rubber bullets in my high-capacity mag but it's not working. Can you help? pic.twitter.com/LRV0OwGoFo — J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) August 18, 2014

I believe this is a bottle of tear gas, can anyone confirm? pic.twitter.com/b3U0DAWcab — J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) August 17, 2014

Oh, good. @ThePeoplesCube is stealing jokes without attribution. Even using the original pics. pic.twitter.com/DwT6ggo693 — Matt (@mdrache) August 18, 2014