Home Depot Forced To Respond After People Fall For April Fools Joke That They’re Going To Start Charging $5 For Parking

Can’t believe an April Fools joke back fired like this.

I hope you were able to steer clear of any pranks and false news earlier this month. April Fools Day is one of the only days of the year where you really have to have you guard up. Even here at Whiskey Riff, we had a little fun with the day by sending these stories out:

– Riley Green Sets The Internet On Fire By Revealing Who He Is Dating

– Morgan Wallen Releases Statement On His ‘SNL’ Exit

– Zach Bryan Announces His Retirement From Country Music

To be clear, those are all April Fools jokes. We clarified in big, bold print towards the end of each respective story.

We just do those types of stories every year on the big day to have a little fun… and hopefully allow for readers to send to their friends saying, “DID YOU SEE THIS?” The disclaimer halfway through usually clears things up, and there’s really no harm and no foul.

But the only problem is that some people don’t always read the stories on the internet before they send the link over. They just read the headlines and take it as gospel, and that exact thing has caused a massive headache for home improvement company Home Depot.

A website called “Pro Tool Reviews” wrote up a story suggesting that Home Depot was going to start charging customers $5 to park at their store to combat rising inflation. It was posted on April Fool’s Day, and there’s a big “APRIL FOOLS” written right at the top of the story. However, somehow Google sent the story out through Google News, and many people got a notification on their phone about the $5 parking charge the day after April 1st.

And they just believed it (why would Google send out a fake news story?), and it resulted in posts on social media like this:

To combat rising inflation, The Home Depot announced it will begin charging customers for parking at stores nationwide starting next month.#BoycottHomeDepot ⁦@HomeDepot⁩ wants to charge you $5 to park

Source: Pro Tool Reviews
https://t.co/lmhtdYt9IH

— Chef Rocky (@chefrocky413) April 2, 2025

That’s right. People started firing up tweets/posts about boycotting Home Depot… when they had nothing to do with this not-so-funny April Fools joke.

Home Depot responded to the above post with this:

Hi Rocky, this is an April Fools’ post from a tool review website. We do not charge for parking.

— The Home Depot (@HomeDepot) April 2, 2025

And just for good measure, another social media user took to their X account to ask Home Depot a direct question about the presumed parking update. This person made sure to clarify the matter before asking others online to abandon Home Depot:

@HomeDepot
Are you all seriously considering charging for parking to combat inflation? If so, I'd like to speak with who is in charge, then fire them and take over their position.
Sincerely,
We the People

— Shrewdness (@LaShrewdness) April 3, 2025

Home Depot responded with this:

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-conversation=”none”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Hi, that rumor is from an April Fools’ post from a tool review website unaffiliated with The Home Depot. We do not charge for parking and have no plans to start. <a href=”https://t.co/VFswJUoQvA”>https://t.co/VFswJUoQvA</a></p>&mdash; The Home Depot (@HomeDepot) <a href=”https://twitter.com/HomeDepot/status/1908217733323301128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 4, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

April Fools Joke gone wrong.

Now what is the moral of the story here? First off, you should always read the story. You can’t always go by what the headline says, or implies. Second, Google sending out an April Fool’s Day post through a Google News notification the day after April Fools’ is a little problematic. I’m sure it was just something that the algorithm sent out, but because it was, “Home Depot $5 Parking Charge” became a trending topic on the internet.

And lastly, shoutout to Pro Tool Reviews for absolutely rocking the world of home improvement. I guess you could say their April Fools joke worked? Just maybe a little too well?