It looks like this could be a thing: Ebola hoaxes.

The latest happened yesterday in Harvard Heights after a man who boarded a westbound bus wearing a mask allegedly declared that he had Ebola.

See also: Good News: Sick LAX Traveler Doesn't Have Ebola

All hell broke loose. After the man's alleged declaration he threw a surgical mask down and left during a stop, a Metro spokesman said. The shaken driver then took the 33-route bus to a Lincoln Heights Metro yard, as instructed, and it was quarantined, sans passengers, he said.

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The driver asked to be checked out at a hospital, Metro's Paul Gonzalez said.

Television news footage showed Los Angeles Fire Department crews responding to the situation wearing head-to-toe hazmat suits.

It started when the suspect and a female companion got on the bus at Venice Boulevard and Hoover Street about 1:45 p.m. yesterday and, at Venice and Western Avenue, the man made his declaration, Gonzalez told reporters.

See also: How Not to Get Ebola


“The man took off his mask and put it on the floor of the bus,” he said, adding that the suspect said, “'”Don't mess with me because I have Ebola.'”

There was no evidence that the driver or the bus caught this bug. The search was still on for the suspect, whom is alleged to have made terrorist threats. 

“This is a very serious thing,” Gonzalez said. “This falls under the category of terrorism.”

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