No, a van full of child trafficking victims was not found at a Texas Walmart

We have yet another case of bullshit being spread on Facebook about child trafficking. This time we go to Midland, Texas where an outlandish story is being shared. To make a long story short, the Facebook post claims that a van full of duct-taped child trafficking victims were found in a van at a local Walmart. It didn’t take me long to find the post that’s making the rounds.

The reason it wasn’t on the news was that it didn’t actually happen. Police in Midland had to issue a statement that the entire incident was fabricated. While it’s not impossible, traffickers don’t have roving gangs of vans snatching people from Walmart parking lots. Instead, they’re more likely to approach your kids on social media than anywhere else.

The problem with stories like this is that it takes away the attention from where child trafficking is really taking place.

Instead of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” it becomes “The Karen Who Cried Child Trafficking”.