Does a video show a Coca-Cola truck found "full of children"? No, that's not true: "It's fake news," a spokesperson for the Davenport, Iowa, Police Department told Lead Stories. The video shows the Davenport Police Department toy drive held December 14 and 15, 2024, the spokesperson confirmed. The police department shared multiple images from the event showing their police vehicle and the Coca-Cola truck.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on December 15, 2024. The video was captioned:
THEY JUST FOUND A COCA COLA TRUCK FULL OF KIDS BEING TRAFFICKED IN ILLINOIS!!! #trafficking
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Dec 17 21:47:07 2024 UTC)
"It is fake news," Owen Farrell, public safety communications and logistics manager for the Davenport Police Department told Lead Stories via telephone on December 17, 2024. He said the video posted on social media shows the NorthPark Mall where the event was held on December 14 and 15, 2024. Police officers were collecting toys for residents of the domestic violence shelter, Farrell said:
This event has been a longstanding tradition within our community.
The Davenport Police Department posted multiple images from the event on their Facebook page (archived here) with the caption:
Through the generosity of our amazing community, we collected hundreds of toys this holiday season during the Davenport Police Association Annual Toy Drive. Your Davenport Police Officers started this tradition 22 years ago, when the offices at Family Resources were burglarized and Christmas toys and funds for area children were stolen. We are humbled by the amazing support and thankful to everyone who helped make the toy drive a success!
One photo (archived here) shows a Davenport police vehicle and the Coca-Cola truck with officers standing next to them:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Dec 17 21:55:11 2024 UTC)
The event was covered by local news station KWQC 6 News station (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here).
Some online comments claimed that the video showed an incident in Decatur, Illinois. However, Steve Carroll, police support officer for the Decatur Police Department (archived here), told Lead Stories via telephone on December 17, 2024, that the video was not from their town and did not show their police vehicle, noting that their cars have a big white stripe on either side and the town name is not above the "ce" in "police." He also said their department does not have a mobile command post like the one shown in the video.
