SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The old saying goes that a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on. It needs an update.
In 2019, the lie can now go all the way around the world, thanks to the globally-connected supercomputers in everyone's pockets- and what's more: sometimes they just. won't. die.
Case in point, a post that's seen a recent resurgence on community anti-crime Facebook pages.
We spotted this on Citrus Heights Crime Watch.
There’s a picture of someone using a sanitizing wipe on a grocery cart handle, and the post says you shouldn’t just use the wipes because of germs:
“The police chief also suggests you do it because of all the problems with *drugs now days [sic] and if they have Fentanyl or something like that still on their hands and they touch that cart, then you do, it can get into your system. Scary but worth taking the time to clean the handle.”
In the post, it goes on to warn about the possibility of kids becoming poisoned by a drug by sitting in the little seat on the grocery cart.
Is this something to actually worry about? We wanted to Verify.
WHAT WE FOUND: Right away we noticed some problems with this one.
First off, despite claiming to be advice from the police chief... this post doesn’t actually come from Citrus Heights.
It doesn't even come from California, but, rather, it comes from a woman who lives in the small village of Anna, Ohio. So, this is not some kind of local trend or response to a local incident.
We reached out to the police in Anna but kept digging around. That's how we figured out that this advice about avoiding drug exposure did, in fact, come from a police department.
It all started in the bustling Metropolis of Leachville, Arkansas, which has a population of less than 2,000 people. It caused the local police there all kinds of embarrassment back when they first shared it... two years ago!
Leachville Police Department took down the post after people started to question it, but we can still see the original thanks to local station WXIN, which saved a screengrab of the original post for posterity.
Even though the original post was retracted, the copying, pasting, and sharing lives on today, because it’s kind of believable and fentanyl is a seriously scary drug that can kill you if you overdose.
As paramedics across the land had to explain when they were asked about all this back then, fentanyl is a white powder. If someone had enough on their hands to leave residue on a shopping cart cart, they might be in health trouble. But you won’t.
“The risk of overdose from simply touching small amounts of powdered fentanyl is extremely low to non-existent,” the rescuers in Tampa Bay explained to our affiliate there.
IS IT TRUE? No.
We verified- this post claiming that it’s a good idea to wipe down your shopping cart to protect yourself from drugs is bogus.
It’s not a real thing. You can go back to worrying about germs instead.
If you see something fishy out there, instead of sharing it even more, Verify it by texting it to us: (916) 321-3310.
________________________________________________________________
Can you legally just not stop and show your receipt at a Walmart checkpoint? We VERIFY.