Says claims of recent abductions unsubstantiated
St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne took to social media this week to debunk an apparent rumor that started there, centered around the alleged abduction of women by a man selling perfume in the parking lot of businesses.
Social media posts have been shared recently to apparently warn about the man, who the posters say asks females to smell the fragrances, which ultimately render them unconscious and abducted.
Champagne said the claims are unsubstantiated in a post to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office Facebook page Monday afternoon, noting that there have been no claims of abduction or attempted abductions in St. Charles Parish made to the Sheriff’s Office, and that the rumors of such have been spreading by people sharing the posts on social media.
He did, however, acknowledge there was an incident reported involving a man who was selling perfume in St. Charles Parish that detectives are looking into, but he said the claim of the perfume rendering females unconscious was an assumption made by the complainant due to reading similar social media posts.
“Falsehoods spread like wildfire on social media, getting quicker and longer-lasting exposure than the truth,” Champagne said. “False claims only alarm the public who experience fear in believing this information is factual. In this case, the post in question was shared repeatedly, expanding fear well beyond our community.”
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