A video authentically shows Illinois police locating a Coca-Cola delivery truck filled with captive children.
The in-question video of the Coca-Cola truck and police vehicles users shared on social media had nothing to do with anyone holding children captive in a truck. Instead, the clip genuinely showed a police-run toy drive in Davenport, Iowa. The Davenport Police Department managed the event on Dec. 14 and 15, 2024, at NorthPark Mall. A post on the police department’s Facebook page thanked Coca-Cola and other companies for their “support of local youth.”
A rumor circulating online in mid-December 2024 claimed Illinois police — either in the town of Cicero or Decatur — located a Coca-Cola truck filled with captive children. Users sharing this rumor did not specifically mention someone holding the children captive, nor did they specifically claim the matter involved a kidnapping scheme or human-trafficking operation. Nevertheless, users’ social media posts implied captivity.
This rumor primarily involved a video of a man heard off screen while talking and pointing his smartphone camera at a Coca-Cola truck and two police vehicles. We also located a second and very popular clip of a man wearing an orange vest talking about the purported incident, several text-only social media posts and an article reporting the news.
However, this rumor was not true. The video of the Coca-Cola truck and police vehicles shared on social media had nothing to do with anyone holding children captive in a truck, nor did we find reports of any such incidents occurring in Cicero or Decatur at the time. Instead, the clip showed a police-run toy drive in Davenport, Iowa. The Davenport Police Department managed the event on Dec. 14 and 15 at NorthPark Mall. A post on the police department’s Facebook page thanked Coca-Cola and other companies for their “support of local youth.”
A spokesperson for Davenport police told a journalist with Lead Stories the rumor was “fake news.” We contacted Davenport police for further comment and will update our story if we receive a response.
The Origins of the Rumor
On Dec. 15, 2024, Instagram user @famouscooleycarter shared this rumor in a since-deleted video that ultimately received over 4 million views and more than 200,000 likes. The clip featured the on-screen caption, “Coca-Cola truck full of kids found!” In the video, the user spoke into his smartphone camera while wearing an orange vest, saying, “This world gettin’ crazier and crazier. They just found a Coca-Cola truck full of kids in Cicero, Illinois. This s*** wild, man.”
The video then cut to a different user’s clip showing a shot of the Coca-Cola truck and two police vehicles. That other user — who we were not able to identify — said while recording, “Bro, they just found a truck full of kids in that motherf***ing Coca-Cola motherf***ing truck. We all, hey. They got you now. This s*** crazy. I’m talkin’, a million kids in that motherf***er. I wonder how far they just traveled. This s*** is crazy.”
At the end of the video, @famouscooleycarter appeared on screen again, advising parents and guardians to keep a close watch over their children. “This world crazy as hell,” he said.
Numerous other users on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X either shared these videos or simply posted about the rumor in text form. For example, this user reposted @famouscooleycarter’s since-deleted video:
Prior to deleting his original video, Instagram user @famouscooleycarter updated his post’s text caption to read, “That clip turned out to be false. Please watch the new video I posted for info on this!”
In his new video (archived), he said the rumor was “not true,” adding, “I believed the s***. My bad, y’all.” He also apologized to Coca-Cola.
We sent a message via Messenger to @famouscooleycarter to ask questions about his posts and inquire about if he wished to share a statement. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Additional Notes
According to a screenshot featured in a post (archived) on @famouscooleycarter’s Facebook page, Grammy Award-winning singer Chaka Khan commented on his since-deleted Instagram video, saying, “Looks like COKE got some Explaining to do!!!!!!” The screenshot showed him replying to let her know the story was not true.
An article published on sheenmagazine.com displayed the headline, “Breaking News A Wake-Up Call for Child Safety: The Coca-Cola Truck Incident in Decatur.” A person managing the website may have generated the story’s text with an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool, according both to our reading of the article and a full scan with ZeroGPT.com. (AI-detection tools are by no means foolproof but do provide an extra data point in attempting to arrive to the best possible determination.)
Dectaur Police Department (Illinois) chief of police Shane Brandel confirmed to Snopes by email the in-question video that was paired with this rumor originated in Davenport, Iowa. Another spokesperson for the department named Steven Carroll also confirmed, “This did not occur in Decatur.”