Over the last six days, County 10 has received dozens of questions and concerns regarding a social media post about an alleged child abduction at the Riverton Walmart. The post originated the night of Thursday, September 20th from a Fremont County woman.
Her post about the incident was shared several hundred times, gaining attention locally and regionally.
Her post contains some strong language that may be considered “not safe for work”
After the original post, the woman said that after reviewing store surveillance video, 4 men were identified, driving a white minivan with New Mexico license plates.
County 10 began looking into this situation after several tips came in to us last weekend about it.
After reaching out to the accusers via social media, they let us know that a police report had been filed via Riverton Police Department.
Two different sources at RPD told County 10 that they had not seen a report and had no further information about the alleged crime.
After reaching out to the Riverton Walmart store directly, an employee said that they were unaware of an incident being reported, and asked us to “double check with the corporate office.” Walmart corporate contacted County 10 on Monday, and confirmed that they didn’t see the incident being reported in the store. A representative also explained to us that they are seeing, “several hoaxes on the internet that begin like this.” The corporate office assured us they will look into the matter, and if their information changes, get back to us.
Late last week, the Cheyenne Police Department warned their followers that untrue incidents of accused child abductions had been going around the state.
After reaching out to the accuser on social media and notifying her that the Riverton Police Department had no report of the incident, the accuser told us that she planned to make a formal report Wednesday morning. RPD is yet return a message about any update as of Wednesday afternoon.
While there has apparently been a recent history of social media hoaxes about alleged child abductions, there are still several incidents across the country in which child abduction attempts are happening at retail stores, including one in a Texas Walmart this week.
If we learn any additional details about this situation, we will update County10.com and our social media pages with a new story.