In January 2025, a video allegedly filmed in California went viral on the Internet. Its author allegedly captured African-Americans taking other people's belongings out of a house abandoned after the evacuation. We have verified the authenticity of this entry.
The viral 18-second video began spreading massively across the RuNet on January 10. Telegram channel «Front bird” (25,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) described what was happening in the frame as follows: “Against the backdrop of unprecedented fires in California, ordinary black Americans are actively and en masse helping residents of Los Angeles in evacuating property. But no, wait a minute, this is mass looting. And still the same faces 🙈 [monkey emoji].” The video was also published on the TV presenter’s Telegram channel Vladimir Solovyov (201,000 views), commenting on the post in a similar way: “While some are fighting the elements and putting out fires, others are using the chaos for looting and profit.” With similar captions, the video was posted in the channels “Banksta"(143,000 views), "New edition"(73,000), Lomovka (48,000), Travel Media (28,000), etc. Many similar posts can be found on VKontakte (examples here, here, here, here And here).
Since January 7, 2025, parts of Southern California have been engulfed in large-scale forest fires. In particular, the natural disaster affected Los Angeles and its suburbs, resulting in fire suffered thousands of buildings. According to local authorities as of January 13, died at least 24 people, another 16 are listed missing, almost 180,000 residents were forced evacuate. At the same time, at least 29 people were arrested for looting in mandatory evacuation zones, including two attackers who were caught posing as firefighters. In this regard, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna announced on the introduction of a curfew and other law enforcement measures.
As for the video being distributed with allegedly captured looters, it is divided equally into two parts. The first shows a black man walking down a roadway, carrying a large, stuffed bag on his back, while firefighters work in the background. There is a residential building nearby, behind which you can see smoke and fire. The second part of the video appears to have been filmed on the threshold of the same building, from which a group of African-Americans are removing a television and other equipment.
At the bottom of the viral video is the logo of the Iranian portal Damavand Media. There was such a post on his social networks published on the night of January 10. "Cousins of the deceased George Floyd (an African-American, after whose murder in 2020 mass protests against police violence began in the United States under the slogan Black Lives Matter. - Ed.), taking advantage of the excellent opportunity during the fire in Los Angeles, are engaged in socialist shopping in abandoned residential buildings,” reads the caption in Farsi. The blog's watermark is also visible in the video published by Damavand Media. The Chingon Mexican (@the_chingon_mexican__) on Instagram*. The description of this profile reads: “The truth from the perspective of a conservative Chicano (so-so) called some are Mexican Americans. — Approx. ed.). Warning: Feelings will be hurt." At the time of writing this analysis, the video on The Chingon Mexican page is unavailable - it was probably deleted.
English-language posts in which the men captured in the recording were called looters and at the same time supporters of [Democratic candidate in the last presidential election] Kamala Harris, received tens of millions of views, so American fact checkers paid attention to the video. In particular, analyzes published projects Snopes And Lead Stories. Our colleagues were unable to find the original source of the viral video, but they discovered that the same people near the same building on January 8 were broadcast live on Los Angeles TV channel KTLA 5. A seven-hour recording of the corresponding broadcast available on YouTube. From the report you can find out that the house located at 161 West Woodbury Road Altadena, a northern suburb of Los Angeles.
The fragment we are interested in begins at the mark 04:45:09. On air, journalist Chip Yost talked about the street on which several buildings burned down, and then went to the house next door. After this, the film crew experienced technical problems, which made part of the report unavailable. However, immediately after the broadcast resumed, the journalist reported that the family living in that house, along with their friends and relatives, removed their belongings from their home in case the fire spread to the building. Yost then spoke with a woman who introduced herself as Tiandra; she stated that she lived there with three children and pets. According to her, the house still managed to suffer from the fire and is now uninhabitable. Tiandra also said that she doesn’t know exactly what things they managed to take out at the last moment. In the same report, her son Elijah said that he rescued animals, and his mother added that the young man carried out everything he could, including school supplies. Friends and relatives who helped save things stood nearby.
Thus, the viral video does not show looters robbing someone else's house, but the residents themselves and their loved ones saving their belongings.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities and symbols are prohibited in Russia.
Cover photo: social networks / collage “Verified”
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