Weekly World News, a supermarket tabloid known for their outlandish stories.
The LA Times noted that the LAPD chief quickly denied the report.
Anchors at the Fox News national morning news show "Fox and Friends" reported Tuesday that the city of Los Angeles had ordered 10,000 jetpacks for its police and fire departments. The price tag: a whopping $100,000 per unit.
For those doing the math at home, the cash-strapped city of Los Angeles, which is regularly sending its police detectives home because it can't pay all their overtime, allegedly shelled out a billion dollars on space-age transportation that it has never used in an emergency situation, much less tested.
"We certainly haven't bought any jetpacks," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. "We haven't bought [squad] cars for two years."
Even while reporting the news, the Fox News hosts couldn't believe the story.
"Are you kidding?" asked Brian Kilmeade.
"Can we afford that?" wondered Gretchen Carlson.
The hosts should have been dubious. A reader at Gawker was first to note that the news appeared to be sourced from the Weekly World News.
The story about the LAPD ordering 10,000 jetpacks comes from the fake news/satire publication Weekly World News.
I guess this is standard Fox News fact checking. Nonetheless, I am a little disappointed to find out that we won't be flying around in jetpacks anytime soon.
The publication is known for imaginary scoops like "Bat boy found in cave," "10 new commandments found," and "Death cured!"
Only hours later, CNN's Jeanne Moos went after the Fox News for the mistake.
"Does this mean LA will be buzzing with jet-pack police like the guys chasing Tom Cruise up a fire escape in 'Minority Report?' asked Moos. "Like James Bond, escaping the bad guys in 'Thunderball?'"
"Like Tom Cruise, FOX News fell for it," said Moos.
Weekly World News CEO Neil McGinness is still taking the story seriously. "Think about law enforcement jet pack officer being able to descend down on Sunset Boulevard and stop a celebrity that's loaded driving a convertible into a tree. I mean, that's something that could save a lot of lives," he said.