In March 2026, a tale spread online about a man in Florida who purportedly claimed a pod of dolphins kidnapped him and forced him to help them build an underwater city.
One Facebook post (archived) about the rumor included a photo of a sunburned man, reportedly named Ricky James Hollowell, and a description of what supposedly happened to him. The caption read:
FORT MYERS, FL -- FLORIDA MAN FOUND SUNBURNED AND DISORIENTED ON SANIBEL CAUSEWAY CLAIMING HE WAS "KIDNAPPED BY DOLPHINS AND FORCED TO BUILD AN UNDERWATER CITY"
Lee County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Sanibel Causeway early Monday after a motorist reported a man standing on the shoulder "soaking wet and drawing blueprints in the sand."
According to the police report, Ricky James Hollowell, 33, was found barefoot, severely sunburned, and wearing only swim trunks. He told deputies he had been "taken against his will by a pod of dolphins 3 days ago" and forced to work on what he called "an underwater construction project."
According to Hollowell and the police report:
Hollowell claimed the dolphins approached him while he was swimming off Fort Myers Beach and "escorted him to a site approximately 40 feet below the surface" where they needed help building structures
He told officers the dolphins communicated through "a series of clicks that he eventually learned to interpret" and that the project foreman was a dolphin he referred to as "Gerald"
When asked how he breathed underwater for 3 days he said "Gerald handled that. I didn't ask questions. You don't question Gerald"
He had drawn an elaborate blueprint in the sand that deputies described as "detailed enough to be concerning" including what appeared to be condos, a town square, and a recreation center
He told officers he was released because "the dolphins were satisfied with his work" but that Gerald said "they'd be back for phase two"
Responding deputy Shawn Oakley told reporters: "I've been with the sheriff's office 11 years. The blueprints were the part that got me. He had zoning."
Hollowell was transported for medical evaluation. Gerald was unavailable for comment.
Some men build cities on land. Ricky Hollowell claims he built one underwater for dolphins and honestly the blueprints were hard to argue with.
The claim spread throughout the month, appearing on Threads, Reddit, TikTok and Instagram. Some posts featured a screenshot purportedly showing an X post by Detroit-based news station WXYZ. The alleged post included a photo of the same man and the caption, "Florida man claims he was kidnapped by dolphins and forced to build an underwater city." Other posts
Snopes readers searched the site to find out whether the story was real.
In short, the image and the tale of the man kidnapped by dolphins originated from a satirical social media account. The sheriff's department referenced in the story also confirmed the story was not real.
A reverse image search revealed that a network of social media accounts called The Dude Humor Report first posted the satirical claim on social media (archived, archived). The Dude Humor Report's Facebook bio described the account's content as satirical:
Dude Humor — where breaking news meets pure entertainment.
for wild headlines and viral stories
Disclaimer: This page features satire and parody stories that are exaggerated, developing fictional — created for entertainment purposes only.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office, which was cited as the law enforcement agency that responded to reports of the man who was said to be kidnapped by dolphins, shared The Dude Humor Report's Facebook post with a tongue-in-cheek denial that read:
While living in Lee County is paradise - we can confidently confirm the underwater real estate market has not been tapped into...yet.
We checked with our newly implemented Underwater Construction Investigation Team and learned the dolphins of our oceans deny any involvement.
DISCLAIMER: No dolphins were harmed in the making of this rumor.
The Dude Humor Report originally posted the story with a screenshot making it appear as if WXYZ posted about the story on its X account with that name. The @wxyz7news X account in the screenshot had a circular icon with a blue checkmark.
There is a real WXYZ local news station on a Channel 7, but it's located in Detroit, as opposed to Florida. The X account for the news channel is named WXYZ Detroit and has a square icon. It is verified with a gold checkmark, which X now uses to verify official organizations.
While the station's logo in the satirical post was almost identical to the real Detroit-based outlet's icon, the logo in the satirical post featured a major error. The fake logo in the satirical screenshot included writing that vaguely resembled "500" or "SOO" instead of "abc," as it appears in the authentic logo.
Snopes found no evidence (archived) of the authentic WXYZ X account posting the satirical story about the Florida man being kidnapped by dolphins. Google search results also uncovered no examples (archived) of the news media outlet reporting on the fabricated tale.
Let us note here: Whether you agree with something being described as satire or parody is a matter of opinion. Snopes is in the business of facts. We label these rumors based on creators' description of them. Your call on whether you agree.