BRITS POOH-POOH `POOP IN THE POST BOX' STORY

BRITS POOH-POOH `POOP IN THE POST BOX' STORY

BASILDON, U.K. (Wireless Flash) -- A British news item about citizens in Essex mistaking dog litter bins for mailboxes is being pooh-poohed by officials. Newspapers have been reporting that some villagers in Essex are mistakenly dropping letters into dog poop chutes which are painted the same red as post boxes -- but it turns out the story is a load of B.S. According to Viv Hotten, a spokesman for the council responsible for cleaning the dog litter bins, no one is tossing letters in the dog doo receptacles -- nor has the cleaning staff ever turned up a single letter from a Lassie lavatory. Hotten says the fake story got started after a member of the council made a joke about an old lady mistaking a litter box for a mailbox and a reporter for the local paper took it seriously.