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Fact check: Image shows fabricated CNN story about man using lost nuclear weapon to power home

BrieAnna J. Frank   | Paste BN

The claim: Image shows CNN headline claiming man used a nuclear weapon to power his home 

There is no shortage of real stories that solidify the "Florida Man" meme's place in internet culture, and a widely circulating headline about a man's supposed arrest in the Sunshine State claims to the latest addition to the catalog.

“Florida man arrested for using a lost US nuke to power his home for more than 27 years,” reads the purported CNN headline on an image posted to Instagram on Nov. 15.

The image includes a mugshot and an underwater photo of a man in scuba gear next to the supposed nuclear weapon. The post received more than 6,000 likes in two days. 

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But a spokesperson for CNN told Paste BN the image is fabricated and CNN wrote no such story. Both photos used in the Instagram post are several years old. 

Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the image for comment. 

Fabricated image uses years-old, unrelated photos 

The purported headline does not appear on CNN’s website, and the network confirmed no such article ever existed. 

“This image is fabricated and was not reported by CNN,” spokesperson Sydney Baldwin told Paste BN.

The mugshot in the image stems from a 2016 arrest in New York – not a more recent one in Florida. It was included in several media reports of a 55-year-old man arrested on suspicion of harassing a woman at an Albany, New York, bus stop.

Fact check: Altered image shows supposed news story on pronoun usage

The underwater image is also several years old. According to 2014 reports by the German news outlet DW and War History Online, it shows one of many World War II-era bombs that have been found in waters off Germany's coast. 

The altered image combining the two photos with the fabricated headline was posted on iFunny, a meme sharing website, in April. It then circulated on social media and was debunked by fact checking outlets such as DFRAC and Vishvas News.

More recently, PolitiFact confirmed the headline was altered. 

Altered CNN headlines about topics including climate change, former President Donald Trump, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have previously been debunked by Paste BN.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image that purports to show a CNN headline claiming a man used a nuclear weapon to power his home. A spokesperson for CNN said the image was fabricated and that the outlet never reported any such story. 

Our fact-check sources: 

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