Disposing of unwanted house guests is one of humanity's most ancient problems, dating back to the age of Sinbad, but last week a man sought a decidedly modern solution to his couch squatter. Posting to San Francisco's general community board on Tuesday, an anonymous Craigslister wrote an an ad titled "HELP ME GET RID OF BURNINGMAN GIRL":

Help ! She won't leave and can't accept that Burning Man is over !

Please take this girl off my hands. Her name is 'Leaf', seemed ok out there in the desert, and she helped us with our art vehicle, "The Giant Six Pack". She's on the couch, still sandy and stinky. She still has goggles on her head, which I'm pretty sure she never put over her eyes. I don't know what to do. She smoked all my weed. She has no I.D. , but is kind of cute. . . in a 'Burning Man' kind of way. BUT IT'S OVER, PLEASE HELP, IF YOU KNOW 'LEAF', EMAIL ME AND DRIVE HER TO PORTLAND OR ANYWHERE.

The post struck an immediate, dirt-caked chord with anybody's who's had a "Leaf" or two in their lives, which (on the West Coast, at least) is everyone. By Monday the page had gone viral, with thousands of Facebook "likes" and a write-up from The Huffington Post.

But as even Huffington Post grudgingly admitted, the whole thing is "probably fake." The supposed picture of Leaf is actually a photo from 2007 taken by New Zealand-native Jonathan Clark. Furthermore, Leaf's name isn't "Leaf" at all, but Samantha, and she's apparently not too pleased with her newfound Internet infamy, characterizing the post as "really horrible."

The greater tragedy, of course, is all the real-life "Leaf"s out there who don't have Craigslist ads but are in no less need of an 86-ing. If you are housing one these Black Rock refugees, we at Antiviral recommend sitting them down and politely requesting they make like a tree.

[Image via Craigslist]

Antiviral is a new blog devoted to debunking online hoaxes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.