Hempfield Township Police Chief Brian Arthur called The Herald this morning to report that his department has ... uh ... not found any dead bodies recently.

To his knowledge, neighboring departments have not found any corpses recently either, Arthur said.

"A rumor has been going around town that we have been finding dead bodies all over the place. It's just not true," Arthur said.

"We want to stop the rumor."

During the last week, Hempfield and neighboring Greenville-West Salem Township police have received dozens of calls from concerned residents -- including a couple township supervisors -- who heard police had found numerous bodies in the Greenville area, Arthur said.

Arthur said he believes the rumor started and took off in one of the area schools, perhaps the high school. "We think we've tracked it (the rumor) down," Arthur said.

"But it's still out there," Arthur said of the rumor.

Arthur said he believes the rumor started over a ball of plastic that was strewn alongside Wasser Bridge Road.

"Apparently, it looked like it could've been a body. It was a big ball of plastic," Arthur said.

"One person told another person and before you know it, we were turning up bodies all over the place," Arthur added.