LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Some television viewers in Southern California were shocked when an end of the world alert showed up on their screens.
It happened just after 11 a.m. on Thursday on Cox Cable, according to KCBS. One woman said she was watching HGTV when the announcement interrupted the show.
“It almost sounded like Hitler talking,” Stacy Laflamme of Lake Forest, California told The Orange County Register. “It sounded like a radio broadcast coming through the television.”
Customers of Time Warner/Spectrum also got the ominous message with one woman saying “It was a man talking about the second coming,” according to KCBS.
A spokesman for Cox tells KCBS and The Orange County Register that viewers should have seen a usual emergency broadcast test.
“With these tests, an emergency tone is sent out to initiate the test,” Joe Camero, a spokesman for Cox, told the newspaper. “After the tone is transmitted, another tone is sent to end the message. It appears that the radio station (or stations) did not transmit the end tone to complete the test.”
Cox and Spectrum are investigating the incident to determine if it was an accident or done on purpose.
“We have confirmed that we were fed an incorrect audio file,” said Dennis Johnson, a spokesman for Spectrum.
The message comes after Christian numerologist and self-described “researcher,” David Meade, said that this Saturday would be the end of the world.
Meade’s theory suggests that earth will collide with Nibiru, a planet famous in conspiracy circles but which astronomers say doesn’t exist.
