How the true story of a drunk raccoon was became a pretend AI video

[ad_1] On December 4, social media customers around the globe began circulating images of an uncanny story: a raccoon who broke right into a liquor retailer in Ashland, Virginia, within the japanese United States. After breaking various bottles and consuming his fill, the raccoon was found handed out within the retailer’s restroom.

<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/4554b958-d51e-11f0-8967-005056bf30b7/w:980/image4-53.png" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/4554b958-d51e-11f0-8967-005056bf30b7/w:246/image4-53.png 246w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4554b958-d51e-11f0-8967-005056bf30b7/w:388/image4-53.png 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4554b958-d51e-11f0-8967-005056bf30b7/w:720/image4-53.png 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/4554b958-d51e-11f0-8967-005056bf30b7/w:980/image4-53.png 980w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) calc(100vw - 32px), (min-width: 1024px) 850px" alt="This photo, published on December 2, 2025, shows a raccoon that was found drunk after pillaging a liquor store in Ashland, Virginia, in the United States." style="max-height:1133px" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> This picture, printed on December 2, 2025, exhibits a raccoon that was discovered drunk after pillaging a liquor retailer in Ashland, Virginia, in america. © Hanover County Animal Safety and Shelter. Quickly after these images had been posted, a video mentioned to indicate surveillance footage from the liquor retailer additionally appeared on-line. The footage exhibits the raccoon breaking a bottle after which slurping up the puddle. After ravaging a whole retailer aisle, the animal wobbles into the toilet, the place he passes out.

The video has garnered greater than 800,000 views because it was posted on X on December 6. The profiles that initially shared the video could seem like information accounts, however in the event you check out their historical past, they solely appear to share viral movies.

This video posted on X - mentioned to be from the surveillance digital camera of a liquor retailer that was pillaged by a raccoon - was really AI-generated. Supply: X To show this content material from X (Twitter), you will need to allow commercial monitoring and viewers measurement.

Settle for Handle my selections Whereas the story and the images that circulated on-line are actual, this video is pretend.

An AI-generated video This pretend surveillance digital camera video was really generated by synthetic intelligence.

<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/98da7c2a-d51e-11f0-8e8e-005056bfb2b6/w:980/image3-71.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/98da7c2a-d51e-11f0-8e8e-005056bfb2b6/w:246/image3-71.jpg 246w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/98da7c2a-d51e-11f0-8e8e-005056bfb2b6/w:388/image3-71.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/98da7c2a-d51e-11f0-8e8e-005056bfb2b6/w:720/image3-71.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/98da7c2a-d51e-11f0-8e8e-005056bfb2b6/w:980/image3-71.jpg 980w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) calc(100vw - 32px), (min-width: 1024px) 850px" alt="There is gibberish written on the wine labels visible in this video posted on December 6, 2025. That’s a clue that the video was created by AI." style="max-height:1435px" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> There's gibberish written on the wine labels seen on this video posted on December 6, 2025. That’s a clue that the video was created by AI. © X Whereas the video does at first look appear sensible, in the event you look slightly nearer, you’ll see that the wine labels and the costs are all written in gibberish. It is a lifeless giveaway that synthetic intelligence has been used to create the video, as AI nonetheless struggles to appropriately generate textual content.

One other clue that the video isn’t genuine is that the aisle proven within the video is completely different from the aisle that seems within the genuine images of the ransacked liquor retailer posted on Fb by the Hanover County animal rescue service, which picked up the drunk raccoon. In the actual retailer, there are fairly a couple of cardboard packing containers amongst the bottles. Nevertheless, they're nowhere to be seen within the AI-generated video.

<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/c2bff9e8-d51e-11f0-98f0-005056a90284/w:980/image2-74.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/c2bff9e8-d51e-11f0-98f0-005056a90284/w:246/image2-74.jpg 246w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c2bff9e8-d51e-11f0-98f0-005056a90284/w:388/image2-74.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c2bff9e8-d51e-11f0-98f0-005056a90284/w:720/image2-74.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/c2bff9e8-d51e-11f0-98f0-005056a90284/w:980/image2-74.jpg 980w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) calc(100vw - 32px), (min-width: 1024px) 850px" alt="At left is a real photo of the shop. At right is a video created by AI." style="max-height:741px" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> At left is an actual picture of the store. At proper is a video created by AI. © Hanover County Animal Safety and Shelter, X. There's really actual footage from the shop’s surveillance cameras. Nevertheless, the pictures are so much much less clear than the pretend video – the shop room and aisles are messy. Furthermore, a part of the actual surveillance footage was filmed in black and white, whereas the AI-generated movie is in color.

Actual clips from the shop’s surveillance footage had been posted on December 4, 2025. To show this content material from Instagram, you will need to allow commercial monitoring and viewers measurement.

Settle for Handle my selections The Hanover County Animal Safety and Shelter took to Fb to supply an replace on the bandit raccoon.

“After a couple of hours of sleep and 0 indicators of harm (aside from perhaps a hangover and poor life selections), he was safely launched again to the wild, hopefully having realized that breaking and coming into shouldn't be the reply.”