Has someone injected poison into the tops of bottled water? Fact Check

Rumours are circulating social media that claim law enforcement are asking people to check the bottle caps of bottled water as someone is injecting poison into those products. The rumours also claim that people have died as a result of this poisoning.

FALSE

As example of this rumour can be seen below –

Enforcement and Government Officials are asking all to check the tops of every purchased water bottle because someone is going around injecting poison into the tops of water. It’s being done so that you do not recognize that the bottle has been tampered with.. You have to turn the bottle upside down and squeeze before opening it. If it leaks throw it away. A few people have already died in the Richmond area.. the Sheriff just made the announcement.

Such posts, which have been circulating since 2018, make two fundamental claims. One, that people have recently died as a result of ingesting poison that was injected into water bottles. And two, law enforcement in “Richmond” have issued an alert warning others. Both claims are rated false.

Scouring the Internet and the social media pages belonging to any area in Richmond across the United States (California, Texas, Virginia) we were unable to locate any warning from law enforcement relating to this message. Of course, if such an incident was occurring, not only would there be warnings from authorities, but there would also be subsequent media reports concerning those warnings. However we were unable to locate any media reports related to the warning either, not even at the local level.

Such a lack of detail means there is no pertinent information such as what type of poison is being injected into bottles and what symptoms arise as a result of consuming the poison.

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Since there have been no warning or media reports related to this article, and the author of the warning has failed to provide any reputable sources, we can dismiss this as a hoax. It seems likely, given the timing, that this warning was the result of a viral post published in March 4th which showed someone taking out several bottles of “Great Value” water which appeared to have pinprick holes in the bottle caps. While that post made no such mention of poison, some commentating on the post assumed the worse, and it seems likely that this is what ultimately fuelled this hoax.

Those bottles of water were handed to Bennington Police in Vermont who issued a statement stating that –
– a month had passed between the date of purchase and the buyer noticing the holes
– two people had consumed the water but had not become sick
– no other instances were discovered by the police department
– there does not appear to be any danger to the public.

Take what you will from those points, but the bottom line is that this above message appears to be nothing more than a scaremongering hoax. Yes do check all products for packaging defects prior to purchase or consumption, but please don’t share this nonsense warning.