Footage of a 2-year-old rescuing his twin from being crushed under the weight of a fallen dresser is being called a hoax by internet skeptics. In the video, which went viral on Tuesday, January 3, with more than 12 million views, a pajama-clad Bowdy Shoff is seen heroically pushing the furniture off his brother Brock in their Orem, Utah, nursery.
Too good to be true? That’s what some people are claiming on social media, pointing out that the drawers were empty and that the surveillance camera appeared to be conveniently aimed directly at the dresser. Also of note: According to his Facebook profile, the boys’ father, Ricky Shoff, works in sales for Vivint Smart Home, the security company that makes the nanny cam that captured the incident.
“What some parents will do for publicity!!! Lets not forget, Balloon Boy,” wrote one doubter on Facebook, while another user was quick to point out the story’s silver lining: “Whether it’s a hoax or not, I guarantee parents all over the world secured their children’s furniture from watching the video!”
Ricky denied the hoax claims in a new interview, saying there is a good reason the drawers were empty. Brock and Bowdy kept throwing their clothes on the floor, so Mom and Dad decided to move their wardrobe to the closet. “We do whatever we can to make sure we can keep [their room] clean,” Ricky told Good Morning America on Thursday, January 5.
As for the camera position, Ricky explained that cameras are mounted on the walls throughout their home. “They don’t move,” he said on GMA. “We don’t move them around. That’s where it is.”
Ricky and his wife, Kayli, have since bolted the twins’ dresser to the wall.
