Those who accidentally got the alert might have been muttering the words of Jack Nicholson's Joker, "Where is the Batman? Is he at home washing his tights?"
It was a strange night in Gotham City as the Missouri Highway Patrol sent out an alert to cellphones in the area to be on the lookout for a purple and green Dodge used by Batman's nemesis, the Joker.
While this sounds like the start of the classic “Batman” TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward, it was all too real as the Missouri Highway Patrol accidentally sent an alert to cellphones to be on the lookout for a 1978 Dodge 3700GT with the license plate that read "UKIDME," the Associate Press reported.
The statewide alert read sent out around 4:52 p.m. Tuesday read: "GOTHAM CITY MO PURPLE/GREEN 1978 DODGE 3700 GT MO UKIDME,” Fox News reported.
The alert was issued to residents of Gotham City, Missouri, but here's the hitch — there is no Gotham City, Missouri.
The car in question was the one used by Jack Nicholson’s character the Joker in the 1989 “Batman” movie directed by Tim Burton.
Authorities say that the alert was only supposed to be used internally to test their systems.
Missouri Highway Patrol said that their test of Missouri’s Blue Alert system was inadvertently transmitted statewide.
The system they were testing is meant to let the public know when a police officer is killed or seriously injured in the line of duty, Associated Press reported.
“During the test, an option was incorrectly selected, allowing the message to be disseminated to the public,” the news release stated.
The Missouri Highway Patrol also posted their message to disregard the alert on Twitter.
"This was meant to be a test message, THERE WAS NO ALERT," they wrote on Twitter.
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