Were the genitals of a groom from Syracuse (New York) blown off by a bottle rocket taped to them by the best man during a bachelor party? No, that's not real: the horrible story was posted by a fake news website imitating the style and domain name of Fox News but it is not real. The site is part of a larger network of sites run by a man who likes to invent tales about bizarre accidents and weird crimes, presumably to make some money off advertising when they go viral. The story is false.
The story originated from an article published on foxnews-us.com (not foxnews.com) August 19, 2018 titled "Syracuse Groom's genitals blown off by Best man after firework explodes." (archived here) which opened:
SYRACUSE NY - A Syracuse man was rushed to hospital with horrific groin injuries and burns after a bottle rocket firework that was taped to his genitals exploded.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 6:40 p.m Saturday, according to Walter Williams, a spokesman for the local Fire Rescue.
Witnesses stated, the men were all celebrating a bachelor party, when the night took a tragic turn for the worst. "It was just another prank we were playing on the groom, we had seen it done on youtube, we thought it would be really funny" said one of the men attending the party. "The best man blindfolded the groom and then taped the bottle rocket to his penis before lighting it. There was a large bang, the next thing I know he was on the ground screaming and everyone was panicking"
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so they might have thought it was a real Fox News story:
Syracuse Groom's genitals blown off by Best man after firework explodes.
SYRACUSE NY - A Syracuse man was rushed to hospital with horrific groin injuries and burns after a bottle rocket firework that was taped to his genitals exploded. Emergency services were called to the scene at 6:40 p.m...
We wrote about foxnews-us.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Tulsa Man NOT Caught Molesting Pig After His Penis Gets Stuck
- Fake News: Beloved Actor And Back To The Future Star Michael J. Fox Has NOT Died At The Age Of 57
- Fake News: Kentucky Couple NOT Charged After Handing Out Free Sandwiches Containing their Own Feces At Trump Rally
- Fake News: McDonald's Did NOT Announce They're Permanently Removing The Big Mac From Their Menu
As you can see, the site already published plenty of hoaxes. Don't fall for it!
