My neighbor's missing cat turned into a whole 'bird drone' thing for a month

Back in April, my neighbor's cat vanished and he was sure it was taken by 'government bird drones' he saw on a video. I used to just nod along, but this time I actually looked up the video he sent... it was just regular geese at the city park. I showed him the park's live webcam feed for a week straight, pointing out the same geese every morning. He finally dropped it after his cat came back, totally fine, from under someone's porch. Has anyone else had to gently fact-check a wild theory with something super simple like a webcam?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charles3mo ago

Ngl, sometimes you gotta let people have their thing. A webcam feed is solid proof, but folks who go that far down the rabbit hole usually just find a new hole. My buddy's still convinced his old truck was hacked by satellites because the radio acts up. The simpler answer is it's a 30 year old Chevy. You did the right thing trying to help, but once the cat came back, that was the only fact that ever mattered to him.

kai_bennett15d ago

Ah man, I gotta respectfully disagree with you on this one. I get what you're saying about letting people have their thing, but sometimes the line between harmless belief and dangerous misinformation gets blurry real fast. Like with your buddy and his truck, that's just funny. But what if the cat thing was about someone being accused of something serious? Then proving it was their cat on camera actually matters. I'm not saying everyone needs to be corrected all the time, but there's a difference between a quirky belief and someone spreading a story that could hurt someone. Sometimes you gotta speak up, even if they just find another hole.

gavin_clark3mo ago

Yeah, the "new hole" thing hits home. I once spent an hour trying to prove my toaster wasn't haunted before I realized it was just unplugged.