German lawyers claim they're behind viral divorce story

der.juli | eBay

It was too good to be true.

A viral story last week about a disgruntled ex-husband who cut all of the couple's belongings in half is said to be fictitious, reportsSuddeutsche Zeitung, a Germany-based newspaper.

The head-turning tale—which traveled like wildfire across the Internet last week, hitting sites such as Reddit, Mashable, Gizmodo and this website—is part of a "guerrilla marketing campaign" from a group of German lawyers, the newspaper reported. Dissatisfied with the reach from traditional advertising, the lawyers intended to create awareness for their divorce firms via an "entertaining" YouTube video and eBaylisting, the publication said.

The listing displayed photos of cut-up items, including a car, couch and even a teddy bear. More than 5 million people have watched the YouTube clip showing a man slicing through the things with power tools.

While the above tale appears to be fake, an angry ex-husband did pull a similar move in Germany back in 2007, Reuters reported, when he used chainsaws to cut his home into two pieces. A police spokesman said he drove away with his half of the home on a forklift.