Was the official email address of the Cobblestone Farms HOA Board of Directors hacked today?

Some homeowners in that community wondered as much when they contacted the InMaricopa.com news desk with copies of a two-stanza memo that, to this editor’s eye, contained a dozen glaring typographical errors.

The errors ranged from the easily forgivable missed plural in “there are numerous animal waste station in our community” to the egregious plea of “Please residence take some pride [sic.]”

Can a structure really experience pride, though?

The snippet, part of a larger email this morning about the association’s general plan, opened with this stern admonition: “The animal waste is out of control.” It ended with a threat to increase dues if people didn’t start picking up their pooches’ poo piles.

Call it dues for doo-doos.

Well, technically, the quasigovernmental missive ended with an improperly capitalized and punctuated comma splice (the so-called grammar Nazis will get it). But no matter — doubtful many read past this paragon of prose: “dues are going to increase and no we can’t simply hire some high school kids to clean [sic.]”

You can perhaps see why, given the slovenliness of both the subject matter and the English employed, some wondered if the memo was legit. Or was it an April Fool’s gag come 36 days early?

One person even asked us if it was a scam mail.

“The grammatical and spelling errors in that notice speak volumes about the board,” said resident Tim Gordon.

T.J. Humphreys added: “This warning was horribly written … I am barley [sic.] an educated man, but this author screams, ‘I don’t know what I am doing, nor do I care.'”

It’s not just the journalists in Maricopa who are offended by such debauchment of the English language.

Anyway, for the rule-following Cobble-stoners out there like Nadia Ismael, Monica Stinson and Dave Kedzierski, who all opposed the HOA’s suggestion of corporal punishment today, InMaricopa is sorry to report the email was authentic — typos and all.

“If we have to hire somebody to monitor pet waste, the dues will go up,” Community Manager Kim Williams told InMaricopa. She directed us to submit a Freedom of Information Act Request for further specifics.

She did offer that the doggie droppings issue would be broached at tomorrow’s board meeting, with a snarky aside: “I ask that they attend the meeting for once … Homeowners rarely show up.”

Of the 891 homeowners in that community, Williams said less than one-tenth attend the meetings on average.

Oh, and we had to ask who banged out the typo-tastic call for ameliorating the sidewalk etiquette.

It came “directly from the board,” said an innocent and commendably patient Williams.