Claim:
A Louisiana man received a 23-year jail sentence for eating 75 pounds of prime rib at a Golden Corral restaurant.
Rating:
False ( About this rating? )
Social media posts on Facebook ( archive ) and TikTok ( archive ) claim a Louisiana man was sentenced to 23 years of jail time for eating 75 pounds of prime rib at a Golden Corral restaurant.
No credible news reports confirmed the above-described event, and an image supposedly documenting a Louisiana news station's coverage of it shows clear signs of digital manipulation. Furthermore, at the time of this publication, Golden Coral buffet menus ( archive ) did not include prime rib.
For these reasons, we have rated this claim false.
An August 2023 TikTok video with the claim provided no evidence to corroborate the alleged story, such as the name of the man supposedly sentenced or when his sentencing allegedly occurred. No official sources, citations, or links were in the post for a viewer to cross-verify its information.
The image in the social media posts includes a logo for KLPC 7 News , a real TV news station based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and affiliated with NBC. However, a keyword search of the channel's published content yielded no stories about the purported sentencing over prime rib. Snopes also looked through archived versions of the KLPC website from August 2023 — when the claim seemed to have first surfaced online — and did not find a related article.
Similarly, a search through Google News ' archive of thousands of reports by reliable media outlets ( archive ) found no evidence to corroborate the claim. If an arrest or sentencing of this nature had actually occurred, news outlets, presumably, would have covered it.
Furthermore, there are visual indications that the image said to depict the man's mugshot was digitally altered. For example, the neck doesn't appear to fit proportionally to the body.
(Screengrab/Facebook)
The KLPC brand logo shown in the Facebook and TikTok posts also shows signs of digital editing, such as pixelated lettering and white smudging around the red circle (the latter suggests an eraser tool was used).
(Screengrab/Facebook)
Compared to a screenshot of KLPC's genuine logo as of August 2023 (shown below on the right), the in-question image (bottom left) looks off::
(Screengrab/Facebook/KLPC)
Snopes could not identify the man shown in the supposed mugshot. However, a reverse-image search revealed several different memes that have used his face since at least 2009. Below is a side-by-side comparison of a version that has existed since 2009 and the digitally edited image that appeared in the posts about the Golden Corral rumor:
(Screengrab/TinEye/Facebook)
Snopes debunked a similar claim in 2016 that suggested a man was suing Golden Corral because he was kicked out of one of its restaurants after spending seven hours at its buffet.
Sources:
Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/LJOn24s/posts/saycheesetv-akademiks-viralreels-viralpics/729490959175938/ . Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
"KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana." Https://Www.Kplctv.Com, https://www.kplctv.com. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
"Search." Https://Www.Kplctv.Com, https://www.kplctv.com/search/?query=Golden%20Corral. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
TikTok - Make Your Day. https://www.tiktok.com/@chunkycreole/video/7268374457683791150 . Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
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