ORLY


Debra Connors

Suggested by Pierre Alleur

Added: Dec 10, 2018  

Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon, USA. Another viral robbery hoax though it may be, Debra Connors drags her daughter down the falsehood lane with her, tying up police resources.

November 16, 2018. Police find interest in a viral post on social media about the Original Poster's mother being the victim of a bizarre robbery incident. The post claims Debra Connors was driving when she suddenly struck what she thought was a dog on the road. When she got out of her car to check and help, she realized it was a stuffed animal, a trap. "Then two men suddenly appeared, slammed her against her car, took her $4,000 at knifepoint, then fled in a black van. In the post which looked like it was carefully prepared as a movie line, daughter also claimed that her mother reported the incident to the police.

However, the police confirmed they had received no such report from Debra Connors, so they contacted her out of concern for the community's safety. During a four-hour interview with detectives, mother feigned in graphic details the alleged incident as if to match the movie scene-like post her daughter made on social media. According to police, it soon became clear the woman was lying. No such incident had happened. This was just another viral hoax like the other one here.

December 10, 2018. Deschutes County District Attorney having reviewed the case and having considered charging Debra Connors with the crime of Initiating a False Report, eventually decided that no crime was committed. However he made an important comment that the fictim "... put her own self-interest ahead of the safety and well-being of our community. She should be ashamed and I hope she offers our community an apology. I also hope she gets the help she needs to address the reasons behind why she made up this story.”

The significance of this fictimhood is how easy it is these days, with the rise of social media, it is for someone to make an alarming claim and get away with it. The daughter of the fictim Debra Connors made a carefully composed post which included the photo of a black van, drew attention to it and made it viral. Whether it was initially the idea of the mother or if she stepped in later to save her daughter when law-enforcement got involved, we do not know. But what we know is the ease at which fictims are getting away with this encourages them to do it again. We see the same thing happening in a slew of 911 calls by people who claim to be calling on behalf of others in distress. And in many of the cases, a complete stranger. The other issue is how people on social media blindly share item simply because they think it sounds believable / interesting, how that urge undermines their critical evaluation ability. We are already at epidemic levels with these problems, yet there is no law / policy to at least curb the trend.

If you share a lie, you help it become viral. Then you're just as guilty as the OL (original liar). Hold that thought!


Related Tags: deschutes county, bend, knifepoint, robbery, theft, hoax, oregon, viral hoax

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