"I can’t believe BuzzFeed was the one who actually fact checked," said Eric Curtis, the Minnesota man who admitted that he made it all up.

On Tuesday, a social media manager in Minnesota tweeted a screenshot of a post that he said was "getting absolutely destroyed" by people in his local Facebook group. This post in my neighborhood FB group is getting absolutely destroyed

The post's author said he's a "competitive barefoot runner" and asked his neighbors to "please keep your sidewalks clear of any acorns or other debris that might injure those whom are active members of the barefoot running community, including myself." After making a threat that he'd alert the city if the acorns weren't dealt with, he signed off, "Peace and Love!"

And people went in. Twitter

The tweet earned more than 70,000 likes and retweets. Soon, the barefoot runner — whose name is Eric Curtis — had been written up by Esquire, Mashable, Fast Company, Uproxx, Gizmodo, and a local weekly paper, among others. Some expressed skepticism. Most went along for the ride, such as the Washington Post columnist who included this response from Curtis after asking him why he doesn't wear running shoes: "Then it's not barefoot running," Curtis said, adding that his "healer" ("I don’t really trust doctors") counseled going shoeless to ease various medical issues.

And now let's bring this whole story crashing down: Curtis is not a competitive barefoot runner. The post was him trolling his neighbors. But no one bothered to check his claims. Curtis admitted making it all up after struggling to answer some barefoot running questions during a phone interview with BuzzFeed News. He was vague when asked to list recent races he competed in, and later declined to provide a photo of him hitting the streets barefoot. Curtis also claimed to have taken up barefoot running while living in Eugene, Oregon. But a public records search revealed he's never lived there. "Just goes to show. You can't fool journalists, unless they are from the Washington Post or Esquire or Gizmodo or Fast Company or Upproxx," Curtis said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

Another early clue of trouble with Curtis's claim was the unicycle. Facebook