Claim:
A Louisiana man received a 23-year sentence for eating 75 pounds of prime rib at a Golden Corral restaurant.
Rating:
False ( About this rating? )
The claim that a Louisiana man was sentenced to decades behind bars after eating a massive amount of beef — 75 pounds of prime rib — at a Golden Corral restaurant has circulated on social media, including TikTok ( archived ) and Facebook ( archived ).
However, there is no credible news coverage describing such an unusual event. An image shared in social media posts purporting to be a screenshot of a local TV news channel's reporting on the story show signs of being digitally manipulated. Additionally, the buffet restaurant's menus ( archived ) did not include prime rib at the time of this writing.
For these reasons, we have rated this claim false.
An August 2023 TikTok video making the claim did not offer any 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 verify its information.
The image in the social media posts included a logo for KPLC 7 News , a real 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 at archived versions of the KPLC website from August 2023 — when the claim seemed to have first surfaced online — and did not find a related article.
Similarly, a search of 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 likely would have covered it.
Furthermore, there are visual indications that the image said to be the man's mugshot was digitally altered. For example, the neck doesn't appear to fit proportionally to the body.
(Screengrab/Facebook)
The KPLC 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 with a screenshot of KPLC's genuine logo as of August 2023 (shown below on the right), the in-question image (below left) looks off:
(Screengrab/Facebook/KPLC)
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 the 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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