The “kindness hitchhiker”, also known as the guy who was shot by a complete stranger during his hitchhiking tour across Montana, has admitted to police that he put a hot chunk of lead in himself as a method of self-promotion. According to the Associated Press, Ray Dolin, 39, confessed everything to authorities while recovering from the self-inflicted gunshot wound at Miles City hospital. The case, however, is still under investigation.

Dolin, who hails from West Virginia, hopped on a bus to Montana in order to write his book about how genuinely nice people were during his adventures. When he was allegedly popped during a random drive-by shooting, the story quickly spread.

This, of course, has to be good news for Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, 53, the man who was charged with opening fire on Dolin as he was preparing dinner on the side of the road. Those charges were dropped on Thursday. However, since Danielson was apparently intoxicated at the time of his arrest, he’s still being held for driving under the influence. Still, a DUI is probably a lot easier to stare down than felony assault.

At the time of the shooting, Dolin was in the process of writing a book entitled “Kindness in America”, a tome which chronicled his experiences with the positive-minded individuals he encountered during his travels. It was the irony of the situation — man writing book on kindness of strangers shot by, well, a random stranger — is what initially caused the story to make headlines. How, unfortunately, Dolin is nothing more than a product of his own bizarre hype machine. If nothing else, he may get a book deal out of it.

Below you can find a sampling of reactions to the news on Twitter. Not surprisingly, most people are a little shocked by the revelation, while others are simply in it to make a few jokes.