Bill Melugin of Fox LA was ridiculed on Tuesday after a story he pushed fell apart.

On Monday evening, Melugin tweeting a story crazy story, complete with a quote from the LAPD police union.

@LAPPL tells me: “This disgusting assault on a police officer was carried out by someone with hatred in their heart and who lacks human decency. We hope they are publicly exposed, fired, arrested, and prosecuted for their cowardly and repugnant actions.” @FOXLA

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) June 23, 2020

The story immediately struck many people as absurd, especially in light of the fake Shake Shack poisoning that was pushed by New York police unions.

And then the story began to fall apart.

Women called BS on the story.

And then the story unraveled further when it reveals the off-duty officer was not in uniform.

Then the Starbucks was inside a Target store and the company released a statement that they found “no suspicious behavior” after reviewing surveillance footage.

Melugin was harshly mocked for believing the police union claims. Here’s some of what people were saying:

This thread is an example of why reporters shouldn't work under the assumption that cops are telling them the truth https://t.co/l5G1Tp5f5h

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) June 23, 2020

earned your Copaganda Badge. congrats

— Atrios (@Atrios) June 23, 2020

Irresponsible running these stories before getting the facts. It isn’t just Shake Shack. Cops have been lying about this stuff for a while and keep getting caught. In the meantime, employees and businesses are targeted needlessly. Especially reprehensible to print the LAPPL stuff

— SoftAmerican (@GulfJacketGuy) June 23, 2020

Not a goddamn thing.

— Pamela Voorhees (@PamelaVoorhee10) June 23, 2020

They should put this thread in a journalism textbook.

— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) June 23, 2020

Irresponsible running these stories before getting the facts. It isn’t just Shake Shack. Cops have been lying about this stuff for a while and keep getting caught. In the meantime, employees and businesses are targeted needlessly. Especially reprehensible to print the LAPPL stuff

— SoftAmerican (@GulfJacketGuy) June 23, 2020

Translation: another lie to make cops look like victims and the general public look like monsters. Got it. 👍

— Steph (@SOpsteegh) June 23, 2020

I’m sorry that you wasted all this time and effort, but you really should have checked with someone who uses tampons before breaking this

— Honey Watson (@benegotherit) June 23, 2020

If only a real journalist had done any investigation before pushing this story in order to get ad clicks

— Ned Pyle (@NerdPyle) June 23, 2020

You're bad at your job.

— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) June 23, 2020

The sheriffs department that killed Andres Guardado for no reason managed to change the subject for 2 days with this fake ass tampon story. Good job helping them dude https://t.co/sfhL186zBn

— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) June 23, 2020

has someone made a decent list of all the asinine shit like this cops have lied about over the last few years, which -always- ends up getting reported uncritically by dipshits https://t.co/qZM3VBExzx

— hello (@weeaboo) June 23, 2020

cops just will not stop lying and trying to get food service employees fired!!!! this is one of the more bizarre elements of cop psychology but it points back to the same impulse to abuse their power and position to ruin the lives of those they consider beneath them https://t.co/dSnvqTk87D

— summer of esther (@EstherOnFilm) June 23, 2020