Did a 36-year-old robber in France by the name of "Louis Paul" rob a woman named "Ally Louia" of €570 (about $705) armed only with a piece of bread? Nope, that story was made up by a satirical website and was not true.
The story originated in an article published on March 25, 2018 by the website 8shit.net titled "French Man Robs Woman Using Only Bread" (archived here) which opened:
What seemed as just a meme has become a reality. A 36-year old man called Louis Paul has robbed a woman using only a piece of bread as a gun. This happened yesterday in a store in Paris when a woman, Ally Louia, was coming out of a jeweler's. She was stopped by Paul all of the sudden and in about a minute he took 570€ away from her.
"I was really scared. I didn't know what to think. On one hand, I thought to myself: 'Come on, he can't hurt me with a piece of bread, and I have valuable things. I should fight.", said Louia to our reporter Gary Cockburn who came to the scene a few minutes later. She kept going: "But on the other hand, I thought he may still hurt me. And he was very intimidating. He was yelling at me and I was very scared so I decided to give him what I had".
The picture of the robber used with the story doesn't even originate from France. It shows footage taken at a 2015 robbery in Barnstaple, UK to which a baguette was digitally added later.
PHOTOS: CCTV of armed robber in Barnstaple
Archant CCTV images taken from inside Coopers in Barnstaple show armed robber aiming gun at jewellery shop owner before fleeing shop. CCTV images have emerged of the attemped armed robbery which took place in Coopers Jewellers in Barnstaple on Thursday. Police are asking anyone who saw the offender in the images on this page to come forward.
We wrote about 8shit.net and the hoaxes they publish before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Teenager Did NOT Accidentally Chop Off His Genitals During Sex With A Blender
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Kill His Best Friend After Their Balls "Touched" During Threesome
- Fake News: NO McDonald's Employee Fired For Putting His Mixtapes In Happy Meals
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Kill Himself After Being Unexpectedly Disconnected From The Fortnite Server When He Was About To Win
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Stab His Friend 63 Times For Making Them Lose A Fortnite Match
Furthermore, 8shit.net carries a disclaimer on its about page that reads:
8Shit is a satire and humor website.
It contains cutting edge satire on a diverse range of topics.
The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor.
We also post crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true.
And an additional disclaimer in the footer of every page:
8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.
