Fake News: Council Will NOT Demolish Victim's Home to Erect Memorial Garden For Dead Burglar

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Council Will NOT Demolish Victim's Home to Erect Memorial Garden For Dead Burglar

Did London town councillors decide to demolish the home of Mr Osborn-Brooks, a 78-year old man who killed a burglar in his house, in order to erect a memorial garden for the burglar he killed, Henry Vincent? No, that's just a fake story from a satire website that uses this false narrative to comment on current events.

It was published by the Rochdale Herald on April 13, 2018 under the headline "Council demolish victim's home to erect memorial garden for dead burglar - The Rochdale Herald" (archived here) which opened:

In a surprise move today London councillors have confirmed plans to demolish the home of 78 year old Mr Osborn-Brooks and in its place start construction of a memorial garden to the dead burglar, Henry Vincent.

The initial plans feature a statue of Mr Vincent complete with 'swag bag' over his shoulder, a screwdriver clasped in his right hand along with a small water feature, fairy lights and a bench.

Whilst local residents are up in arms over the plans, friends of the career burglar say it's what he would have wanted and will be a fitting way to remember a man who died doing what he loved, stealing from vulnerable pensioners.

The story vaguely resembled a real news article when viewed on social media:

Council demolish victim's home to erect memorial garden for dead burglar - The Rochdale Herald

In a surprise move today London councillors have confirmed plans to demolish the home of 78 year old Mr Osborn-Brooks and in its place start construction of a memorial garden to the dead burglar Henry Vincent.

Only yesterday the Rochdale Herald pubished a different story satirizing the same events:

Fake News: Dead Burglar NOT To Get State Funeral | Lead Stories

Is a burglar who was killed on the job getting a state funeral in Rochdale, U.K.? No, that's not true, the story was made up by a satirical website commenting on recent events in the United Kingdom.

The Rochdale Herald is a satirical website with following disclaimer on its about page:

Daily news, satire and comment from the world's worst local newspaper.

The Rochdale Herald is a satirical, spoof, parody commentary on current affairs, and stuff that annoys and amuses us. We make it up and it's not intended, in any way whatsoever, to be considered factual.

If you read a story on The Rochdale Herald, please take a deep breath before going off the deep end as we probably made it up, apart from the horoscopes, they're all completely legit (no they aren't, we make those up too). We don't spend much time checking facts or corroborating sources because, and we can't stress this enough, we're not actually journalists and are making most of it up. This is an entertainment site that may occasionally confuse some fact with fiction and vice-versa but ultimately we're writing about the news to make you laugh. We also might talk about sex and swear a bit from time to time so if you're under 18 please don't read it.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental, seriously.

If we've written about something that's offended you, please accept our apologies. Unless you are just being a big sissy and have forgotten how the internet works.

We wrote about rochdaleherald.co.uk before, here's another article that mention the site: Fake News: Season 9 of The Walking Dead NOT To Be Filmed in Burnley Asda

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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