This video of an alleged shoplifting incident was filmed at a supermarket in London, not Sydney
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 2, 2019 at 09:45
- 2 min read
- By AFP Australia
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The video was published here on Facebook on August 23, 2019. It has been viewed more than 348,000 times and shared more than 5,000 times.
The post's caption states: "Woolies Bankstown". It refers to this Woolworths supermarket in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
At least some of the users who shared the video on Facebook appeared to be convinced that the video was filmed in Bankstown. AFP has redacted their identities in the screenshot below.
The same video was also published on Facebook here and here with a similar claim.
The claim is false; the video was filmed at an Asda supermarket in London, England.
A reverse image search on Google for a keyframe extracted from the video found this article published by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. The article states two women were accused of using Muslim dress to aid a shoplifting spree at an Asda supermarket in the London suburb of Dagenham in August 2019. Police told the newspaper that the incident happened at a store in Merrielands Crescent, Dagenham on August 4, 2019.
One of the members of staff who appears in the video can be seen wearing a uniform which displays an Asda logo on the back.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading Facebook post (L) and the Daily Telegraph's video (R) with the Asda logo circled in red:
The video corresponds with Google user images tagged at the Asda store in Merrielands Crescent, Dagenham here and here.
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