Viral Tweetstorm About Drug Deal And MS-13 Was Fake, Author Admits
An epic Twitter thread about a time the author claimed to have accidentally smuggled a brick of heroin from Los Angeles to Seattle, and in the process outwitting some members of the notorious MS-13 gang, went viral earlier this week, with the initial tweet getting over 67,000 retweets and 181,000 likes.
Now, the author of the thread admits that he made the whole thing up, and he has announced that he’s going into hiding.
“I Lied. I Made The Whole Thing Up. Now I’m In Huge Trouble,” Shane Morris wrote on Medium Friday.
He went on to admit that declaring that he had stolen from MS-13 members was “probably the dumbest thing you can write and put on the internet.”
The tweetstorm, consisting of nearly 100 tweets, told a wild and hair-raising tale about the time Morris and a friend took a spontaneous road trip that took them from Florida to Los Angeles and eventually to the Pacific Northwest.
The story, which consists of multiple instances of Morris and his friend buying or selling cars on the spot, culminates in the author discovering a brick of heroin hidden in one of the cars. Then, after arranging the selling of the drugs, he decides to make more money by selling the car back to the owners of the drugs, who turn out to be MS-13-affiliated. This leads to a narrow escape.
As pointed out by many who reacted to the tweets, not only was Morris admitting that he had sold a large amount of drugs, but he’s also putting it out there, under his own name, that he had stolen from MS-13, a notoriously violent street gang that might seek to avenge the crime. Others correctly deduced that the story wasn’t true.
Morris writes on Medium that he decided to spin the tale after a previous Twitter story about “eating 8 grams of mushrooms” had a positive reception, so he decided to try to one-up it.
The author really did take a road trip, which was the source of the pictures he included in the original tweetstorm. But he took a great deal of dramatic license with the rest of the story.
As a white male writer, I feel extremely comfortable saying there needs to be way less of us. Possibly even zero. And that feeling has only increased a billion-fold after watching the Shane Morris horsesh*t bonanza play out. https://t.co/kIeFV6NZ0v
— pajiba (@pajiba) May 24, 2019
“There was no kilo of heroin in the van,” Morris admitted. “Who the hell forgets a kilo of heroin? It’s not like forgetting where you put down your car keys. It’s a godd**n kilo of heroin. A few of you even pointed out that it’s likely heroin would melt, even with many layers of aluminum foil around it. You’re probably right?—?because I don’t know a d**n thing about heroin.”
He went on to conclude that he may be in the wrong career and has considered switching to screenwriting from his current career as a software coder.
Morris went on to launch a GoFundMe campaign called “I Need to Go Into Hiding,” presumably from MS-13 types who think the story is true. He added that “I have to go through great lengths, cover great distances, and change my appearance. This also goes for my wife.”
