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New Zealand Police Apologise For Offensive 'The Office' Tweet

It really didn't go down well.
Getty/Twitter

If you've paid even a little bit of attention to the Internet recently, you may have seen the somewhat strange viral trend whereby members of police forces around the world crack jokes and post memes to get their messages across.

For the most part, the content shared to Facebook and Twitter pages has been funny -- or at least enough to make you chuckle -- but as with every online sensation, there always seems to be one person or group that takes the joke a little too far.

Enter stage right, the New Zealand Police.

The official Twitter account of the Kiwi police team found itself in a tight spot on Monday after it posted a tweet that said, "when we have to tell someone their family member has died in a crash", followed by a moving image of fictional TV character Michael Scott from 'The Office' with the words "this is the worst".

And as you can imagine, it really didn't go down well.

Luckily, the social media team behind the account were quick to act, deleting the initial tweet and issuing a series of apologies describing the faux pas as "wrong & insensitive".

"We apologise for the recent road safety tweet. We quickly realised it was wrong & insensitive & it was immediately deleted. Thx for feedback [sic]," the statement said.

And while the choice of humour probably wasn't the best thing to come from the official New Zealand Police account, at the very least many of its followers were satisfied with the apology.

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