If you perused Twitter or Reddit on Friday morning, you might have noticed a wild convenience store video that featured two shoplifters saving the day when an armed robber appears.
There’s no doubt it’s an exhilarating 44-second ride. On Reddit, it was featured under headlines like “The craziest robbery of all time” and on YouTube, it racked up more than 100,000 views in less than a day.
There’s only problem: It’s not a real robbery.
It actually originated from the Five Points account on Facebook, where it was posted on Feb. 9 and generated more than 11 million views. Executive produced by Kerry Washington, Five Points is a drama series on the Facebook Watch platform that features students at a high school on the south side of Chicago that experience a moment where “a single gunshot is about to change everything.”
Redditors were quick to point out all the reasons the video was faked. (The best reason was provided by catherder9000, who wrote “I like the part where he conveniently lays the shotgun on the counter before being held down by a 10 lb chip shelf.”)
But it was a fun choreographed piece of film, and even though it was all acted out, maybe the viral nature of the video won Five Points some viewers. As long as people realize it wasn’t real.