Is That a Penguin in Your Pocket? Or Are You Just Happy...

The trickle started in October. We got an email from a friend reporting that we’d never believe it. Bostonist thought it sounded a little “fishy.”

My friend's older brother and his wife took their son, who is five, to the Boston Aquarium last Saturday. They have a grand ole time, walking around and checking out the sea life and then picking up some lunch afterwards. They go home and their son disappears into his bedroom to play. About a half hour later, they hear the water running in the bathroom. Thinking this is bizarre, they call out to him, and he comes running into the kitchen, to say, "I'm going to take a bath!" Mom and Dad think this is great. They didn't even have to coerce him into doing it, he actually wanted to take a bath and took it upon himself to get the tub running! Mom and Dad go into the bathroom to help him get set up and when asked which toy he wants to play with, he simply responded, "Oh, I'm going to play with my penguin." …The parents decide that the bath is getting a bit out of control, so they head into the bathroom to regulate, and to their surprise, their son is playing with a real penguin. Apparently, he stole a penguin from the aquarium by stuffing it in his backpack…They called the aquarium and they eventually sent someone over to check out the situation as they did not believe it to be true. Now the penguin and the child are under quarantine for at least two weeks to see if they have any diseases. My friend's brother and his wife still can't figure out how their son stole the penguin, but shit, if I had known it was that easy, I would have done it months ago!

The story has cropped up on a blog or two, here and there, and popped into Bostonist’s inbox from friends all over the country. Turns out the Penguin-in-a-Backpack is most likely an internet hoax. We checked out Snopes.com and the urban myth debunker machine. They’re still calling this one inconclusive. References to a similar legend in the UK in 1993 are listed in their database, and the new crop of penguin myths has seemed to circulate the internet following the success of March of the Penguins. Prompted by an incredible number of calls and inquiries, the New England Aquarium invited members of the media to witness a penguin headcount. There were still 61. After we read the article in the Boston Globe and heard NPR report about it on Friday we couldn’t wait for Snopes to update. They did on Saturday. It was trivial. Still no proof positive.

P.S. They’re not wearing tuxedos but Penguins do support Same-Sex Marriage.

Photo courtesy of Flickr User: Agent Smith