Staged Video of Kidnapping Attempt Shared as Real

Wesam Abo Marq

News

27th April 2023

Staged Video of Kidnapping Attempt Shared as Real

The scene was staged (Twitter)

The Claim

A video shows an attempted kidnapping of a little girl after she left the grocery store.

News posted on

Entrepreneur || Tech Consult

Emerging story

A video that allegedly shows an attempted kidnapping of a young girl after she left the grocery store was shared by social media users.

The video shows a car pulling up alongside the girl, with someone inside opening the door. The shopkeeper intervenes and escorts the girl away from the car, taking a picture of the vehicle before leaving

hero woman pic.twitter.com/XvRpEzJm9U
— Devlet-i ebed müddet (@SifreHilal) April 20, 2023

A supporting image within the article body

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar investigated the circulating video and found the claim to be misleading.

A reverse image search revealed the video to be staged to promote awareness.

Kidnapping Video Was Staged to Raise Awareness

Misbar’s team found a similar video of the incident published on YouTube on February 8, 2022.

Misbar compared the circulating video with the YouTube video and found many similarities.

The store where the footage was filmed, the ice cream freezers, and the car all appear to be identical in both videos.

Additional videos were found online featuring the same cast, store, and vehicle, all filmed in a similar style, indicating that they were all staged.

One of the Actors Revealed that the Video Is Staged

Misbar’s team followed the comments on the videos and came across the name of one of the actors involved.

We searched for Renata Chonlong online and found her Instagram account. On July 30, 2022, Renata posted a statement confirming that the video being circulated online was indeed staged.

The translated statement indicates that the videos were filmed in Ecuador with the intention of raising awareness and preventing similar incidents from occurring, as stated by the actor.