On Tuesday, March 21, an image surfaced online claiming that the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 that had debuted at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the night before was stolen just after the debut. That post was accompanied by a picture shown below of the back of the Demon 170 with “STOLEN” written across it.
That screenshot of what appeared to be a Facebook post said:
“Stolen last night. Right after the reveal of the Hellcat Demon 170, some jackass stole it right after the show. VIN 001. Silver. Noticeably wide ass tires. Last seen somewhere on the Las Vegas strip. Anyone see it please let me know. You can’t have sh*t these days.”
When someone sent me the screenshot of what looked like a Facebook post, the first thing that I did was search the account that allegedly posted the picture. That Facebook account did not exist, so I reached out to a few people who had shared the image. Some of them claimed that they had found it on an Instagram account, so I hunted around that site and found that Instagram account also didn’t exist. At that point, I was pretty sure that it was nonsense, but I wanted to be sure, so I reached out to a few contacts at Dodge.
Right away, one contact replied (unofficially) that it was not true and early the next morning, I got the official word from the brand.
“This is a false report that originated on social media. Confirming the vehicle has NOT been stolen.”
Unfortunately, a bunch of dimwitted YouTubers and Instagrammers who didn’t care if it was true or not began using the nonsensical story to get traffic. As a result, it spread around the various social media channels and groups, leading to more and more people reaching out to me to ask if it was true. Initially, I was trying to reply to all of the posts in which I had been tagged, but I figured that it would be easier to write this piece and share it across social media.
So, no, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 was not stolen after the debut (or at all) and once again, bad information is being spread around social media by the smoothest-brained members of our society. This should serve as a stark reminder that YouTube and Instagram are rarely a good source of information, especially when that information is not available anywhere else online, but as it often the case – Stellpower sets the record straight.
