BAT CAVE, NC - A TikTok influencer has been arrested and one sheriff is setting the record straight about misinformation going viral on social media in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
According to FOX Carolina, the TikTok user, identified by the Henderson County Sheriff as David James Phillips, reportedly posted a video claiming that FEMA was blocking access to aid for hurricane victims via a road connecting Bat Cave and Chimney Rock. After Phillips arrest, Sheriff Lowell Griffin said, "Now, in these videos, he keeps blaming FEMA, and he keeps laying out that these folks have had no help.
I will tell you this, this entire county, with the devastation that it suffered, there were a lot of folks that for the first couple of days had to be kind of self-sufficient. But they're tough. They're mountain people." He said that the region is being helped by state, county, nonprofits, and federal agencies.
The road mentioned in Phillips' video was cut by West Virginia coal miners through private property. The property owners became upset and contacted the Attorney General's Office about the issue. Griffin said, "It has absolutely nothing to do with FEMA. This all came through the state and is because private property owners still have rights. These rights weren't suspended just because Hurricane Helene came through."
With permission from the property owner, the Department of Transportation and the Attorney General's Office installed gates on both sides of the road to access the road for emergency purposes. Griffin said, "The property owners were gracious enough to say, look, let's put some sort of temporary barriers up, something like a gate that would still allow emergency access or access, when there was an essential need. But not just everybody passing back and forth through this property that was already damaged and now further damaged."
Griffin said Phillips was charge with traveling in an unauthorized area and turned himself in. The sheriff added, "Just because somebody chooses to make a video and they may be a good videographer, doesn't mean it's factual. Star Wars was a tremendous movie, but there was nothing there factual."
In a separate incident, another TikTok influencer was arrested after being accused of theft for the second time in a matter of weeks. According to NewsNation, the woman, identified as 22-year-old Marlena Velez, was arrested for retail theft in Cape Coral, Florida.
Velez was first arrested for theft back on November 21st after she was accused of stealing $500 worth of items from Target in late October and posting incriminating videos to social media. Police learned that Velez had filmed herself getting ready to go shopping on the day of the theft and had also filmed herself picking out items inside the store.
They compared her social media posts to the surveillance footage and positively identified Velez as the suspect. Velez, who has over 400,000 followers on TikTok, was arrested and charged with petit theft.
Then, on Saturday, November 30th, police responded to a Target store and met with loss prevention staff about a separate instance of theft from November 20th. Police were shown surveillance footage and recognized Velez from the previous arrest. They also recognized a man with her who had a unique tattoo on his left arm that had been seen in some of Velez's TikTok videos.
Velez is accused of failing to scan 16 items worth $225 while going through the self-checkout process and instead scanned false barcodes. She has been charged with one count of petit theft and was booked into the Lee County Jail. Jail records show she was released on Sunday, December 8th on a $500 bond.
According to FOX Carolina, the TikTok user, identified by the Henderson County Sheriff as David James Phillips, reportedly posted a video claiming that FEMA was blocking access to aid for hurricane victims via a road connecting Bat Cave and Chimney Rock. After Phillips arrest, Sheriff Lowell Griffin said, "Now, in these videos, he keeps blaming FEMA, and he keeps laying out that these folks have had no help.
I will tell you this, this entire county, with the devastation that it suffered, there were a lot of folks that for the first couple of days had to be kind of self-sufficient. But they're tough. They're mountain people." He said that the region is being helped by state, county, nonprofits, and federal agencies.
The road mentioned in Phillips' video was cut by West Virginia coal miners through private property. The property owners became upset and contacted the Attorney General's Office about the issue. Griffin said, "It has absolutely nothing to do with FEMA. This all came through the state and is because private property owners still have rights. These rights weren't suspended just because Hurricane Helene came through."
With permission from the property owner, the Department of Transportation and the Attorney General's Office installed gates on both sides of the road to access the road for emergency purposes. Griffin said, "The property owners were gracious enough to say, look, let's put some sort of temporary barriers up, something like a gate that would still allow emergency access or access, when there was an essential need. But not just everybody passing back and forth through this property that was already damaged and now further damaged."
Griffin said Phillips was charge with traveling in an unauthorized area and turned himself in. The sheriff added, "Just because somebody chooses to make a video and they may be a good videographer, doesn't mean it's factual. Star Wars was a tremendous movie, but there was nothing there factual."
In a separate incident, another TikTok influencer was arrested after being accused of theft for the second time in a matter of weeks. According to NewsNation, the woman, identified as 22-year-old Marlena Velez, was arrested for retail theft in Cape Coral, Florida.
Velez was first arrested for theft back on November 21st after she was accused of stealing $500 worth of items from Target in late October and posting incriminating videos to social media. Police learned that Velez had filmed herself getting ready to go shopping on the day of the theft and had also filmed herself picking out items inside the store.
They compared her social media posts to the surveillance footage and positively identified Velez as the suspect. Velez, who has over 400,000 followers on TikTok, was arrested and charged with petit theft.
Then, on Saturday, November 30th, police responded to a Target store and met with loss prevention staff about a separate instance of theft from November 20th. Police were shown surveillance footage and recognized Velez from the previous arrest. They also recognized a man with her who had a unique tattoo on his left arm that had been seen in some of Velez's TikTok videos.
Velez is accused of failing to scan 16 items worth $225 while going through the self-checkout process and instead scanned false barcodes. She has been charged with one count of petit theft and was booked into the Lee County Jail. Jail records show she was released on Sunday, December 8th on a $500 bond.
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