"People are stupid" is an overused expression. People can behave quite foolishly, but honestly, its rare that people are just broadly painted with a stupid brush. Most examples of, "Stupidity" are misunderstandings, cynical interpretations from the outside, or one of those chance examples of run of the mill mistakes that randomly happen to all of us, mixed with a healthy dose of bad luck. Laughing at the stupidity here is easy, but the far more likely scenario is that the woman was frustrated beyond belief, and mixed that with a rather harsh joke. And then a friend of hers decided to hop on the bandwagon, knowing full well that they wern't being serious, and the authorities had no choice but to take it seriously. Reasonable, if mistaken, assumptions and actions leading to something that appears really stupid.