Did a monkey fire an Indian guard's rifle while he was taking a nap at a checkpoint? No, that's not true: There are many clues that the video is AI-generated, notably the distortions in key positions of the video indicating watermarks from the AI video generating app have been removed. Other glitches can be seen in the Indian flag, the gun, and the chair where the soldier is napping.
The video appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @SprinterPress on Nov. 18, 2025. It was captioned:
Now it makes sense why India keeps losing its own helicopters
Below is a screenshot from the post:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/SprinterPress/status/1990925051751710986.)
The video posted on X is grainy and pixelated. The low quality is the first clue that the video may be fake. Lead Stories did a Google reverse image search to see if there was a higher quality copy of the video for analysis. A higher resolution copy was posted to YouTube on Nov. 17, 2025. This video has another account tagged, ISQ TV. This account has posted scores of video shorts with the same theme (pictured below): a monkey fires a soldier's gun while he was napping at a checkpoint. The video in question is circled in red. The videos feature soldiers from many countries, some videos also have cats and dogs, and many are posted with the hashtags:
Unexpected moment #armylover #shorts
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from youtube.com/@ISQSTORIES/shorts.)
The Lead Stories composite image (pictured below) shows some of the glitches typical in AI-generated videos. The flag of India waving gently in the wind, inconsistently features the 24-spoke wheel on the central white field. While the soldier naps, he is slumped into the arm rests of his chair, but as he is startled by the gunshot- his leg passes through the chair and then the chair is rendered without an armrest on one side. The rifle pictured appears similar to a HK-G3 but the stock seem to be installed upside down.
(Image Source: Lead Stories composite image with youtube.com/shorts/DwhNJKW0RM8 and x.com/SprinterPress/status/1990925051751710986.)
Lead Stories indicated the positions where the watermarks of the Sora AI video generating app usually appear with blue squares. One watermark typically alternates between the three positions in the course of a video's play. In this case, all three positions have been obscured with a blurring filter for the duration of the video. The perfectly rectangular distortion of the blurring is easier for the eye to pick up while the video plays than in a still screenshot.
