A teenage filmmaker has pulled off an audacious prank that not only fooled thousands online but also managed to troll one of New Zealand’s major news outlets, Stuff, into reporting a completely fabricated story as fact.
The 26-second video that started it all shows a supposed food delivery driver climbing a staircase to a central Wellington home. The “driver” appears to steal and consume some of the food, sip from a takeaway drink, and then flee awkwardly, tumbling down the stairs after being caught by the customer at the door.
The video was posted to the Vic Deals Facebook page by a user named Leon Eldred, accompanied by a furious caption implying that the incident had just happened to him:
“Is this guy fcking serious? $25 down the drain. I am so f**ing confused… is this normal for these delivery apps?”
The video racked up over 276,000 views, hundreds of shares, and thousands of reactions, many of them condemning the alleged actions of the delivery driver.
But it was all fake.
Eldred later admitted in private messages that the entire video was part of a high school project designed to create a fake viral video, and Stuff fell for it.
Stuff not only reported on the incident but also interviewed Eldred, quoting him in the article and accepting his version of events as genuine. Ironically, Eldred even told the reporter during the interview that he initially thought the situation might be a prank.
As questions started to mount, one suspicious viewer contacted Stuff directly, pointing out several red flags: the driver hiding his face, the lack of food branding, the unrealistic drink contents, and the fact that the "driver" looked suspiciously like Eldred himself.
“I’m not surprised mainstream media is losing readership when you fail to do basic verification,” the viewer wrote. “What’s worse, the obviously faked video or the apparent ‘legal action’ over $25?”z
When confronted, Eldred stood by his actions, telling the concerned viewer that the hoax was intentional and that it was the media’s responsibility to fact-check.
“If they expect everyone to be completely honest, then that is low-key their fault,” he said. “The world is full of liars.”
He even criticized the viewer for trying to expose the prank too quickly, saying:
“You are helping the lazy media by trying to expose it too quickly.”
Despite acknowledging that the prank put his credibility at risk and might endanger real delivery workers’ reputations, Eldred maintained that his goal was to highlight how easily misinformation spreads and how willingly media outlets can be manipulated.
Stuff later removed the article and issued a statement from its digital editor-in-chief, Keith Lynch:
“This video and subsequent story was deliberately created to mislead, which it did despite a journalist attempting to verify it… our checking processes were inadequate.”
Lynch said the newsroom had reviewed its procedures in light of the incident to prevent similar failures in the future.
The incident serves as a sharp reminder of how vulnerable modern newsrooms can be, especially when chasing viral content in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. It also demonstrates how a single, well-executed troll can blur the line between fiction and reality, revealing both the power and the fragility of the media ecosystem.
In this case, a school project not only went viral but also briefly redefined who was reporting the news and who was being played.
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