A teenager who set up a Facebook group publicising a birthday party at his home address was stunned – when he received more than 21,000 confirmed guests.
The embarrassed lad only meant to invite a handful of close friends to his 14th birthday party at his parent’s modest flat in Harpenden, Herts, in October.
His stricken mum removed a Facebook group which had her address and phone number when 21,000 people had signed up – more than the entire population of Harpenden.
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Police have warned teens to stay away from the birthday party but pledged to step up patrols in case thousands descend on the town as promised.
Fake Facebook profiles for celebrities including Justin Bieber, Stephen Hawking Susan Boyle, Stevie Wonder and Rick Astley have said they are attending the party.
A series of spin-off groups including ‘after-party’ and ‘pre-party’ events and Facebook profiles pretending to the birthday boy have since sprung up on the web.
One of the event pages insists that the party is still going ahead and nearly 7,000 people have accepted the invitation with more than 1,270 people putting themselves down as ‘maybe attending’.
A stunned neighbour said: ”More people than the population of Harpenden are supposedly attending and thus we are very concerned for our small and humble town on October 7.”
Sgt Lewis Ducket, of Herts Police, said: ”We are aware of this and have been assured that the event is no longer taking place.
”We will have officers on patrol in the area on October 7 to provide a reassuring presence and who will be able to deal with any issues, should they arise.”
