Have Roma children in the Plovdiv region in Bulgaria been kidnapped to sell their organs? No, that's not true: The local police received lots of alerts that three masked men driving a black SUV with a Bulgarian license plate were abducting Roma kids in the Plovdiv region. But after investigation, the local authorities confirmed that this is not true and that the rumor was creating mass panic and hysteria.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on July 24, 2023, with the following Bulgarian caption, translated by Lead Stories staff:
If you spot this car! ✅ Call the #police Attention! ✅ Children are being stolen for organs! The number is CB9333K. SAFEGUARD YOUR CHILDREN ✅
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Aug 28 18:51:47 2023 UTC)
Since the end of July 2023, social media posts in Bulgaria have shared the false claim that children of Roma origin had been kidnapped to sell their organs in the region of Plovdiv. Police were patrolling around the residential quarters where Roma lived because the claim caused panic. The social media alerts provoked local people to organize volunteer groups armed with gardening devices to patrol the areas at night to protect their children. Here is what many of the posts were sharing:
Last night around 3 a.m., I spotted an Audi Q7 next to the coffee machine at the butcher's shop. The men were sitting there for about an hour and then left for the town of Rakovski. They wander around during the day to identify their victims and enter people's homes later to steal children for organs. Keep your children safe.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Aug 28 20:52:47 2023 UTC)
In an interview at Nova TV, Commissar Sulko Litov, Deputy Director of Plovdiv Regional Police refuted the false claims:
This is all fake news. There were initially 50 alerts followed by another 30 calls from last night only. The alerts do not contain correct information. The police monitor Roma neighborhoods. The information is not specific and has not been confirmed. After calling the emergency number 112, those people contact their relatives in other settlements, who also call in order to file a report.
There is no evidence or witnesses who saw the three masked men in a black SUV stealing Roma children. The vehicle of the photos in the social media posts has been identified by the authorities. The police confirmed that on the evening when the photo of the car was taken, the 53-year-old owner was with his family at a restaurant, returning from the city of Plovdiv to the settlement where the family lives and that all allegations are unfounded. The police are, according to the interview at Nova TV, working to find the original source of the false alarms to hold the alleged author responsible.
Here, here and here are more Lead Stories fact checks about similar false claims concerning the kidnapping of children.
