Borrowing from a staged radio drama bought by many, a Calgary filmmaker perpetrated a space junk hoax that sparked worldwide attention over the weekend.

Sebastian Salazar was watching his Twitter feed fill with discussion of NASA’s dying Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) shortly before midnight Friday.

An anomaly over Okotoks, Alberta, on one weather image sparked speculation that debris from the 6.5-ton craft could land in the city south of Calgary.

One particular tweet expressing fear that aliens could be living in the satellite caught Salazar’s attention, reminding him of Orson Welles’ fake 1938 radio broadcast War of the Worlds, which led many to believe aliens had landed.

He pulled transcripts from the broadcast and began tweeting them out as live events occurring on a farm in the Okotoks area.

“People weren’t even checking for legitimacy anymore,” Salazar said yesterday. “I started putting in quotes directly from the play and it kind of spun off from there.”

To provide “proof” of the debris, Salazar gathered some tubing and a piece of scrap metal from his family’s camper and went into the alley behind his northeast Calgary home to snap a photo.

“I thought it looked terrible, but some people still bought it,” he said.

RCMP fielded numerous international calls Saturday, some reportedly as far away as Japan, about the crash landing but no debris was found in Okotoks, confirmed spokesperson Tim Taniguchi.

He said Salazar likely won’t face reprimand for his actions, despite some expressing outrage over the hoax online.

“It didn’t cause police to enter into an investigation, so, as far as I can see, there is no criminal offence,” Taniguchi said.