Did someone place flyers poisoned with Fentanyl on a police car in Harris County? No, that's not true: the Harris County Sherrif's Office issued a statement with that claim on June 26, 2018 via a Facebook post but then retracted it a few days later on June 30, 2018 after lab results came back. Despite that several websites have kept publishing copies of the story on later dates without bothering to check the original source with the retraction notice.
The story recently reappeared as an article published by Chilling Mode on September 5, 2019 titled "Someone Is Placing Flyers On Cars That Are Poisoned - Chilling Mode" (archived here) which opened:
A shocking story of a sergeant with Harris County Sheriff's Officers, who got infected after getting into contact with a flyer has hit the headlines. The papers she touched are said to have been contaminated with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is an opioid usually used as pain medication and which is functional together with anesthesia medication. The ...
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Someone Is Placing Flyers On Cars That Are Poisoned - Chilling Mode
A shocking story of a sergeant with Harris County Sheriff's Officers, who got infected after getting into contact with a flyer has hit the headlines. The papers she touched are said to have been contaminated with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is an opioid usually used as pain medication and which is functional together with anesthesia medication. The ...
This seems to have been the original Facebook post (archived here) from the Harris County Sherrif's Office making the claim:
But the post already indicates it was updated when new information came out showing that no fentanyl was found after lab testing:
URGENT: Flyers placed on the windshields of some #HCSO vehicles this afternoon at 601 Lockwood have tested positive for the opiod Fentanyl. One sergeant who touched a flyer is receiving medical treatment. Call authorities if you see these flyers and DO NOT TOUCH. #HouNews
UPDATE: Further lab testing found no evidence of Fentanyl on the flyers.
The update seems to have been made just a few days later as can be seen in the edit history of the post:
Despite this information being available to everyone who bothered to look for it, since then several websites have re-posted articles claiming a Fentanyl-laced flyer was found. Most of these sites are either really bad at reporting or simply engaging in some old fashioned copyright infringement by stealing old articles from other websites for monetary gain.
