I thought this biker chick, barreling around the radioactive no-man’s lands, alone, on her Kawasaki would be a great character for my book. But when I asked Rimma Kyselytsia, a zone guide, about her, she said it was all a lie. Elena had never ridden a motorcycle in the zone. “Elena’s” name was, in fact, Lena Filatova and she visited the zone for the first time – in a car and not a motorcycle – two weeks after the original website appeared.

And everyone in the zone was pissed off about it. Officials demanded to know who let Elena ride around on a motorcycle, which isn’t allowed. Producers wanting to make movies about Elena’s “heroism” pestered Rimma with phone calls. Confused checkpoint guards had to turn back Norwegian biology teachers on bicycles who wanted unlimited passes like Elena’s. But it was all fiction – and a fun story I ended up doing for the Los Angeles Times.

Now you're making me nostalgic for bonsai kitten.