A fake news story has people panicking about a South Texas town being attacked, but all is safe and quiet in Sarita – despite what you might read online.
Sarita is the county seat of Kenedy County and about 100 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border. The population is fewer than 300. But according to an online fake news site called the National Report, the town has been taken over by a militia of immigrants who are in the county illegally.
County Judge Louis Bud Turcotte says the story has gone viral and people are calling the town from all over the county.
“I definitely heard of it and had numerous phone calls and inquisitions about it – there was no indication of that happening at all – it was all a hoax.
According to the fake story last week, over one hundred armed La Raza militants stormed the town, took it over and forced the residents out of Sarita. But Turcotte says the town is completely safe.
“We’ve got a very efficient law enforcement department down here. We’re right in the middle of hundreds of Border Patrol Agents. Highway Patrolmen – I’ve got one sitting in my office right now. So I think we’re pretty safe.”
And Turcotte says people should remember an important lesson.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Because it’s probably not true.”
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