Fact check: Scam posts portraying car crash victim actually show 2019 photo of influencer

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Image shows an unidentified young man who was hit by a car

Social media users are sharing a pair of images they claim show the consequences of a recent car crash.

The first picture shows a man lying in a hospital bed, while the other appears to show first responders tending to a car crash victim.

"Please help! This young man hit by a car few hours ago (sic) here in Putnam Valley," reads the caption of one Oct. 20 Facebook post. "We couldn’t find any ID on him and he is still unconscious. Please help bump this post so that his friends or family may find him."

The post, which garnered more than 70 shares in six days, has its comments turned off. A similar post claiming the incident occurred in Belton, Texas, was shared more than 600 times in one day before it was deleted.

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The pair of pictures have been shared widely on other Facebook groups as well, with versions of the post claiming the accident occurred in towns such as Fairbanks, Alaska; Eudora, Kansas; and Dade City, Florida. Iterations of the post have also been shared on Instagram.

The claims are false. A spokesperson for the Belton Police Department said the posts are a hoax. The man in the picture is an online content creator named Alex Stokes who landed in the hospital in 2019 after his appendix ruptured.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

Image dates back to 2019

Candice Griffin, a Belton Police Department spokesperson, told USA TODAY in an email that no such incident took place in Belton. Griffin pointed to the numerous locations cited in the posts as proof that the claim was fictitious.

Online content creators the Stokes Twins shared the first picture included in the post on Facebook in 2019. It features one of the twins, Alex Stokes, lying in a hospital bed in the emergency room.

"Hey guys, Alan here... Alex was rushed into the emergency room last night," reads the post's caption. "Please have him in your thoughts and prayers."

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The twins later published a video on their YouTube channel where they revealed Alex Stokes had suffered from a burst appendix. Neither the video nor the Facebook post mentions a car crash.

USA TODAY was unable to verify the source of the second photo.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image shows an unidentified young man who got hit by a car. A spokesperson for the Belton Police Department said the posts making the claim are hoaxes. The man in the picture is an online content creator named Alex Stokes who landed in the hospital in 2019 after his appendix ruptured.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim that image shows unidentified man hit by a car