HOUSTON — In just minutes of a post going live on Facebook, people inside a buy and sell group started reacting to and sharing a post showing a child allegedly found safe in the Bridgeland community. The post claims the child was found and no one has called looking for him.
Harris County Precinct 5 covers calls for service in the Bridgeland community, a public information officer told the KHOU 11 Verify team by phone, that they did not have any calls or investigations in that area Monday evening. The KHOU 11 Verify Team also found other ways to check if posts concerning missing children are real.
THE QUESTION
Is a social media post claiming a child found in the Bridgeland community real?
THE SOURCES
Better Business Bureau
Harris County Precinct 5
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Google Image Search
THE ANSWER
The social media post claiming a child was found in Bridgeland is false.
WHAT WE FOUND
The post is not specific about where or whose custody the child is in. The KHOU 11 Verify Team used Google Lens to determine if the same image appeared on other social media platforms. The results showed the same image, and posts using the same language popped up for two different counties in Texas, Missouri and California.
One law enforcement agency in California received an outcry of calls, prompting the agency to make a post alerting concerned residents that the post was not real.
According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers have increasingly targeted "buy and sell" groups, like where the Bridgeland post was made.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children wants you to consider a few factors before sharing information regarding kids, including whether the poster is real or comes from law enforcement.
A real missing person post will contain more information, including dates and where the child was last seen.