KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missourians received a puzzling message on their phones Tuesday afternoon – an ‘emergency alert’ from Gotham City.

But this was neither joke nor riddle, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, but rather an unfortunate accident.

Around 4:52 p.m., people’s cellphones buzzed with an automatic alert reading, “GOTHAM CITY MO PURPLE/GREEN 1978 DODGE 3700 GT MO UKIDME.”

That’s the car driven by the Joker’s goons in the 1989 ‘Batman’ film.

Fortunately, we didn’t need a Caped Crusader to solve this mystery.

Minutes after the alert was sent, state police sent word the alert was a test message accidentally sent across the state.