PLANT CITY, Fla. (WFLA) — Several Plant City residents sent screenshots of a concerning Facebook post to News Channel 8, but the Plant City Police Department said it’s a hoax.
A photo showing a woman dressed in scrubs and holding a baby has been making the rounds on social media across the country, with each post claiming that the woman impersonated a nurse and stole a newborn baby from a local hospital.
The police department posted a screenshot of the post from a Facebook group called “Plant City Area Online Garage Sale” on Thursday. The PCPD said it was aware of the post being shared and got in touch with local hospitals to see if there were any missing children.
“All children are accounted for,” the police department said in their Facebook post. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed that the incident described in the post was fake.
“We have not heard of any such incident in Hillsborough County,” the sheriff’s office said in an email to News Channel 8.
The same photo and fake story popped up on social media across the country recently, causing local police from Texas to North Dakota to issue statements saying the story isn’t true. The Facebook photo now comes with a misinformation warning.
