Photograph of a Smart Car inside a home.

Did a Smart Car Owner Park His Auto Inside His Kitchen to Avoid Hurricane Damage?

Even for social media, a snapshot of a Florida man’s zeal for hurricane preparedness was recycled seemingly within hours, and wound up getting online traction on two different platforms.

Jessica Eldridge first gained attention online on September 3 2019, when she posted a photo on Facebook of her husband Patrick’s Smart car, parked inside their Jacksonville home, writing, “My husband was afraid his car might blow away and my car is in the garage.”

At the time, Hurricane Dorian was threatening the region. The post has been shared more than 68,000 times on the platform. Another photograph of the car, posted on Reddit that same day, was highlighted more than 69,000 times on that site.

Jessica and Patrick Eldridge were subsequently featured in stories by various American news outlets.

“I said there was no way he could. He said he could,” Jessica told the Associated Press. “So he opened the double doors and had it in. I was amazed that it could fit. He had it in with no problem.”

But the same day her photograph “went viral,” a Facebook user republished it with a different caption: “Had too [sic] hide my car from repo people.” Their post has been shared more than 71,000 times on the site. That version of the story, however, is false.