A Florida man kidnapped a professor at the University of South Florida in an attempt to force the scientist to make his dog immortal.
Most dog lovers would do anything to spend more time with their furry best friend, but according to an online rumor, one man even went so far as to commit a crime to immortalize his four-legged friend.
The claim that a man kidnapped a scientist to “make his dog immortal” has been appearing on various social media channels for at least half a decade, from Facebook And X To Youtube And Redditsuch as the following article.
Florida man kidnaps scientist to make his dog immortal
by you/JustASimpleCubesmith inchaoticgood
Snopes found no evidence that the alleged crime took place. Instead, our editors have matched the mugshot above to a man who was arrested in 2014 for domestic violence and resisting arrest.
The story about the dog kidnapping appears to have its origins in a post published on July 20, 2018 on the website The Mother of All Nerds entitled “Man kidnaps scientist to make his dog immortal.” It states in part:
Philip Josef of Florida decided that his dog should have eternal life because losing this beloved animal would be devastating. “He loves his dog too much and can’t let him die,” he explains. All dog owners would like to never have to worry about their four-legged friend passing on to the afterlife. But Josef has taken it to the next level.
He doesn’t try to figure out how to make his dog immortal on his own. He doesn’t understand Frankenstein’s scientific formulas and the biological processes required to accomplish the task. And Josef is not the type to give up. Suddenly an idea came to him: “Why not kidnap a scientist?” Josef says to himself, laughing devilishly.
So he “kidnapped Ryan Lockhart, a doctor and scientist from the University of South Florida.” One can only imagine what was going on in Ryan’s mind at this point. No lab, no secret chemical formula to keep the dog alive forever, and a crazy guy holding him hostage trying to figure out what his next move would be. The good thing is they found the Florida scientist before anything catastrophic happened.
(…)
Scientists have also agreed to find out how to make your dog immortal, although they may not succeed.
However, our editorial team has found no evidence that the above story is true. We have classified this claim as “False.” We have contacted The Mother of All Nerds for more information and will update this article if we receive a response.
There are several reasons to doubt the validity of the article. First, we conducted a Keyword search (archive) from Google News, an archive of thousands of reputable news and information sites. No credible documents or reporting findings were returned to substantiate the claim. Although the story is not labeled as such, it appears to be a work of satire.
Snopes also contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which confirmed that this is not and never has been an investigation by that agency. A spokesperson for the FDLE recommended that our editors contact local police and sheriff’s offices in the geographic area where the kidnapping allegedly occurred. So Snopes contacted the University of South Florida in Tampa, where the professor allegedly worked.
In an email to Snopes, Tampa police wrote:
We have neither a report with these names nor an incident of a similar nature.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed that there was no record of a “Philip Josef” in its system.
Snopes conducted a reverse image search (archive And archive) of the mug shot in the article “The Mother of All Nerds”. We have found that the photo first appeared in an article by NBC Miami And WPLG Local 10 Newsa television station in Miami, Florida. The news reports did not describe a dog-loving kidnapper, but a man accused of “attacking his girlfriend with a banana.” This was the story from January 2, 2014:
Florida man arrested after attacking girlfriend with banana
Charges against Philip Joseph Smolinksy for domestic violence and resisting prosecution
TAMPA, Fla. – The new year did not start off well for a Florida man after he was arrested for attacking his girlfriend with a banana.
After Phillip Joseph Smolinsky’s girlfriend was called to her home Wednesday morning, police accused him of throwing a banana at her head. A Pasco County officer noticed a red mark on the victim’s face where she had been struck by the flying fruit.
The arrest affidavit states that the same officer also found a banana in a nearby trash can and that pieces of the peel were found on the ground near where the girlfriend was sitting.
In addition to the domestic violence charges, Smolinsky, 36, was also charged with attempted resisting arrest without violence.
According to police, pepper spray had to be used to arrest Smolinsky.
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