FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show Sharks Swimming In A Pennsylvania Mall?

Conservative News DailySeptember 3, 2021

An image shared on Facebook over 600 times purportedly shows sharks swimming at the Galleria Mall in Pennsylvania.

Verdict: False

The image has been digitally manipulated to include the sharks. The original photo was taken in Canada in 2012, not Pennsylvania.

Fact Check:

Parts of Pennsylvania saw heavy rain, flooding and other severe weather as a result of remnants of Hurricane Ida traveling up the mid-Atlantic, The New York Times reported. One of the areas of Pennsylvania that got hit with significant flooding was York, according to local NBC News-affiliate WGAL News.

A Sept. 1 Facebook image shows what appears to be two sharks in flood water at the bottom of two escalators. “Galleria Mall York Pennsylvania,” reads text accompanying the image.

The image, however, has been digitally manipulated to add in the sharks. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found the original image included in a photo slideshow included in June 2012 article by CTVNews about floods in Toronto. The flooding was due to heavy rainfall combined with a backed-up storm sewer, the outlet reported.

“A mixture of rain and sewer water has flooded the concourse of the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto,” the original photo’s caption reads.

The doctored photo has been circulating online since 2012, and was included in a list of funny pictures from the Toronto floods published by BlogTo bearing the headline: “A roundup of Union Station flood funnies.” Jamie King later sent a tweet explaining he created the image, according to Toronto Life.

@christerickson The shark photo is a hoax. I made it as a joke, in response to the flooding at Union Station in Toronto.

— Jamie King (@JamieaKing) June 15, 2012

“The shark photo is a hoax,” King tweeted. “I made it as a joke, in response to the flooding at Union Station in Toronto.”

King confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact that he did create the image, saying, “It’s not real, it’s a joke I put together quickly in photoshop that continues to pop up all around the globe when there is a large storm.”