Sheriff Errs in Boulder Warning, to Twitter's Glee

For 30 minutes Monday, a boulder blocked a lane of highway in San Miguel County, Colorado. And for the rest of the day, Twitter users were infatuated, and also a little confused. "Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking east-bound lane Highway 145 mm78 at Silverpick Rd," read a tweet from the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, which warned drivers in the area to use caution, per Mashable. It had apparently meant to write "the size of a small car," which is what appeared in a similar warning on Facebook, per KUSA. Left in the dark, Twitter users had a blast trying to explain the tweet, which was liked more than 100,000 times in less than 24 hours.

"Did ... did a self-conscious small boulder write this?" one user commented. "Thank god you took a picture of it, as I'm apparently not familiar with boulder units of measure," wrote another. A third user figured the boulder "came off of a large mountain the size of a small hill," while a fourth assumed the tweet was intentional. "Gotta hand it to you, this is a great way to guarantee lots of people are going to see this message," the user wrote. Hours after the initial tweet, the sheriff's office reported the boulder was about 4 feet square and weighed some 10,000 pounds. Large, yes, but small enough that a snow plow was able to move it. (Colorado has preserved another boulder as big as a house.)