Someone recognised their grandparents in this Sunday Sport coronavirus story and it just got better and better

John Plunkett. Updated March 2nd, 2020

This Sunday Sport story about a couple of ‘holidaymakers’ who were busted trying to escape their coronavirus-hit hotel by the tan lines left by their face masks was already a classic of its type.

‘Don’t interrupt me for a while, I really need to concentrate on this,’ said @RoylePin over on Twitter.

Here’s how it starts.

‘Fed up with being confined to their hotel because of a coronavirus scare, Ted and Marcia Phelps made a daring escape bid and headed for Tenerife Airport … and home.

‘But the couple’s plans were scuppered when eagle-eyed airport security saw evidence they had been at the doomed Costa Adeje Palace Hotel – the white bits on they faces where they’d been wearing MASKS while sunbathing.’

If the whole thing’s a little bit too much to read, here’s the essential bit of text.

(And picture …)

Anyway, it was elevated to a whole new level when someone recognised the couple. And – hard to believe we know – something didn’t quite ring true.

Top notch journalism from @thesundaysport here. Except this is an old photo of my Nanny & Grandad (taken in California), with fake names, a fake story and photoshopped faces. Nan is delighted she passes for 69 though. https://t.co/QfUoIfWAtT

— Sammy Lazarus (@iamsammylazarus) February 29, 2020

Hey @thesundaysport, can your graphic designer get in touch? Nanny is going to a bar mitzvah next weekend and needs her fake tan doing. pic.twitter.com/yvlKKvOmla

— Sammy Lazarus (@iamsammylazarus) March 1, 2020

I've always wondered how they get away of using photographs of real people in the fake stories. Who had copyright of the picture?!

— Cat Phillips (@Cat_Phillips) March 1, 2020

The sad thing is, there are people who will read that and believe every word.

— Gareth Ravenhill (@GarethRavenhill) March 1, 2020

Yeah the comments underneath the article are amazing!

— Sammy Lazarus (@iamsammylazarus) March 1, 2020

In the face of a real epidemic (you know, where ordinary folks DIE), a bloody newspaper could only come up with this? This is beyond scraping the bottom of the barrel.

— Mary Jo Escano (@Kopikido) March 1, 2020

Yes. Scraping the bottom of the barrel would be a huge step up for us.

— Sunday Sport (@thesundaysport) March 2, 2020

Source Twitter @iamsammylazarus