Man who lost his testicles while showing off his scuba bong is fake news

2025-04-27 17:49:53admin

The AP is cracking down on fake news, even if it's old and has already been debunked.

In September a story surfaced of a man losing his testicles after a freak accident involving a bong and a scuba tank. It appears as if the story first was reported on the site IsThatLegit.com, and let me tell you, it's not legit at all.

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Here's a couple lines from the original post:

A 29-year-old Calgary local has suffered extensive injuries to his lower body after an unconventional attempt to "fill a scuba tank with weed smoke" failed spectacularly last Thursday night. According to the testimony of several witnesses, Robert Palmer had consumed a copious quantity of alcohol before making the decision to demonstrate the home-made device.

“Rob’s a recreational diver,” commented one of the injured man’s friends. “For some time, he’s been tinkering with an old scuba tank that he’d bought cheaply from a dive shop. His plan was to use an air compressor to feed smoke into the tank, and then use a scuba regulator to inhale it.”

The initial story claimed the man was from Calgary, but the post then reappeared on the site BostonLeader.com with the location swapped for Boston.

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Snopes was quick to debunk the story when it was first being shared, but that wasn't good enough for AP, so they fact checked it themselves five months later.

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According to the AP, a spokesperson for the Boston police department confirmed that "no such incidents were reported to them on that day." Police in Calgary one-upped them and said they had "no such complaints" of scuba bongs in the last five years.

As Snopes points out, IsThatLegit has a disclaimer on its site that says it's "for entertainment value only." Boston Leader does not have a disclaimer on its site, but have reported fake news in the past, and just looking at the site's sketchy nature should tell you that this is not a reliable source for information.

But seriously, scuba bong sounds awesome and someone should (safely) make one.

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