Remember that delicious "hell hath no fury" story about an angry dentist in Poland who pulled out all of her ex-boyfriend's teeth? You may be shocked to learn that it didn't really happen.

The story — which came complete with names and funny quotes, but no pictures or video — began with a report in the U.K.'s Daily Mail last month, then lit up the internet, getting picked up by nearly every major news outlet including Pulitzer Prize winners like The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and others like Fox News and The New York Post. It was such a great story that it was almost too good check ... until MSNBC.com's Erin Tennant decided to actually check it and came up empty.

Tennant called some police departments in Poland and discovered there was no such crime being investigated. There is also no dental practitioner named Anna Maćkowiak anywhere in the nation's registry of dentists. (By the way, MSNBCN.com and their network partner, MSN spread the story as well.) So it just goes to prove the old maxim that you should "never trust thinly-sourced stories about weird things that happened to unknown people in Eastern European countries without a little more evidence." Still, it wouldn't hurt to be nicer to your dentist and your girlfriend or boyfriend. 

Photo non-Polish dentist by Sheff via Shutterstock

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Dashiell Bennett