24 June 2014

"Kentucky Fried hoax"

The news report that a little girl whose face was scarred by pit bulls was asked to leave a KFC establishment because her disfigurement was disturbing the customers... is a HOAX.  A fundraising hoax.
They originally said the child and her grandmother were asked to leave a KFC that turned out to have been closed for years. Victoria’s aunt Teri Rials Bates, who maintains the page, later said it happened at another location on Woodrow Wilson Drive near the Jackson hospital where Victoria went for treatment.

Security camera footage from that KFC and another near the hospital does not show children matching Victoria’s description going into either restaurant on May 15, according to sources interviewed by the Leader-Call. Nor did any orders taken that day include both sweet tea and mashed potatoes – what Mullins claimed she ordered for her granddaughter...

People touched by Victoria’s story have reportedly sent in more than $135,000 in donations as surgeons offered their services for free... The fast-food restaurant had already committed $30,000 to help pay Wilcher’s  medical bills; a spokesman told the AP they would pay regardless of what the investigation into the incident found.
More details from the local Mississippi newspaper investigation.
After it went viral, employees and managers at both Jackson locations have faced death threats, have had drinks thrown at them through the drive-thru window and have faced constant verbal harassment, the source confirmed...

National and world media such as CNN, Nancy Grace, Huffington Post and The Today Show jumped on the story, lambasting the employees, KFC and YUM! Brands, KFC’s corporate owners...

4 comments:

  1. Big surprise. Sounded like a hoax from the start.

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  2. There is so much wrong with this whole situation. The lies told by this family could very well have caused bodily harm to those KFC workers, all for the chance to make money from well meaning strangers. I'm glad that the Laurel Leader-Call pursued the story and brought the truth to light. And I think that KFC has been pretty generous in saying that the $30,000.00 they were donating was the family's to keep even if their investigation found that the allegations were false.

    While the family may be struggling to pay for Victoria's medical care, lies such as this are no answer.

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  3. The lies are inexcusable! What message does this send to the child? That it's okay to lie and to blame the innocent for money? Whoever perpetrated this hoax should be horse-whipped (with a very large horse!).

    Seriously, I find this whole scenario appalling.

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  4. I'm unclear on whether or not the grandmother is the wife of the grandfather who kept the dog that mauled the girl. It would seem like a case of guilt, the desire to make things right with the child, and without a way to do that, getting someone else to foot the bill.

    I think KFC is being ultra generous to the family, and I hope that it doesn't inspire copycats. As for the low life rat bags that decided it was okay to assault employees of a company for a rumor, to me, that says volumes about our society. I hope that this ALL goes towards teaching that little girl to be a good person. If I were the parent of that kid, grandma and grandpa wouldn't have much to do with us anymore.

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