A Redditor claiming to have bought a Range Rover with his own money at the age of 25 was fact-checked by an internet sleuth who dug up the car’s details to announce that the purchase was actually funded by his father. The fact-check is now going viral online, having crossed from Reddit to X, where many applauded the sleuth for ‘exposing’ the Redditor’s lies.
Here’s what happened
It all started with a post on the Reddit forum ‘Indian_flex’. A user (Slushiii11) shared a photograph of himself posing next to a Range Rover. He blurred out his own face and the first few letters of the license plate. However, the last four digits on the license plate – 0011 – remained visible in his picture.
The Reddit user claimed that he had bought the luxury car on his own. “Bought my first car at 25. Livin life BIG size,” he captioned the photograph.
A brutal response
A fellow Redditor (SureSplit) decided to dig deep to fact-check the original poster’s claims. This man, claiming to be a lawyer, said that he tried “all combinations of RTO codes with MH __ 0011” and found that the car belongs to a “a small builder/politician connect in Navi Mumbai/Ghansoli”.
He then called out the original poster for bragging about a car that he did not buy with his own money.
“This isn’t a flex when it’s daddy’s money. If you want, I can write down all the details including DIN (director identification number) along with the entities owned by you and your family, but I won’t do that to protect your privacy,” the lawyer said.
“People here are competing with your dad, not you. Let your dad flex this one, or probably not, as it’s black money stolen from the public,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“People here are competing with your dad, not you. Let your dad flex this one, or probably not, as it’s black money stolen from the public,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}The brutal takedown has gone viral, having received more than 2,700 upvotes at the time of writing – way more than the 244 upvotes that the Range Rover photo received.
The owner’s clarification
The owner of the Range Rover replied to several critical comments that cropped up under his post. In some of them, he reiterated that the car had been bought with his own money.
“Well let me clear something out. This very car is what I myself have earned. I don't have to prove this period. Aur baap bhi toh mera hai, mai flexx nhi karega toh kon? And don’t dhamkify me brother, if you got any problem you surely know where I live or call me. It's not difficult to find my number. Ajao we will sort it out (It’s my father. If I don’t flex then who will? And don’t threaten me),” he said to the lawyer.
He also refuted allegations that the car was bought with black money. “And it’s not good to frame people without knowledge brother. No one came to my home to drop black money. It’s hard blood and sweat which you guys won’t see,” the owner said.
(Also read: Delhi man forced to sell Range Rover at 'throwaway prices' due to 10-year diesel ban)