Multiple social media users are posting in local Facebook groups about a boy they say was hit by a car in their community on Sept. 4.
“Please help! This young man got hit by a car last night here in Weslaco, we couldn’t find any form of identification with him. Please help bump this post so that his friend’s (sic) or family may find him,” reads a Facebook post from Sept. 5 in a 24,000-member Weslaco, Texas, garage sale group. It also includes a photo of a boy in a hospital bed, accompanied by another photo of a bent and twisted bike on the ground.
The post was shared more than 50 times in two days.
It has been duplicated by multiple accounts, which each saying the boy was hit in a different community. One version of the claim asserting the crash happened in Oskaloosa, Iowa, accumulated 200 shares before it was deleted. Another gained popularity in Appomattox, Virginia.
The claims are false, though.
The photo of the boy in the hospital bed is of a young man who was hit by a car in Grimsby, England, three months ago. The accompanying photo of a bike is from an unrelated crash in Santa Rosa, California, in 2021.
Police in Appomattox, Oskaloosa and Weslaco told USA TODAY no such incident occurred in those cities on Sept 4.
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USA TODAY reached out to several users who shared the claim for comment.
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