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Satire About Man Using Nuclear Bomb to Power His House Shared as Real

On performing a search on CNN's website, we did not find any such article published with the same headline.

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A screenshot of an article purportedly from Cable News Network (CNN), which mentions that a Florida man was arrested for using a nuclear bomb to power, is going viral on the internet.

It also has a collage of two photographs - the first one is a mugshot of a man, and the second shows a scuba diver.

However, we could not find any such article published by CNN. The mugshot shows a Donald Trump supporter named Todd M Warnken, who was arrested in 2016 for allegedly threatening a black woman and using racial slurs.

The second picture is from an article published in the German news organisation Deutsche Welle (DW) which talked about how millions of tons of firebombs and poisonous gases can be found in the waters off the coast of Germany

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The collage was created as a meme, and the headline was taken from a satire website, which mentions that the information on it is for "entertainment purposes only".

CLAIM

The claim suggests that a man was arrested in Florida for using a nuclear bomb to power his home for more than 27 years.

It was shared with a caption that said, "Free this man".

Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.

What About the Article?

A closer look at the screenshot revealed that the article was attributed to CNN.

On searching for the headline on the website of the media organisation, we did not find any such published article.

Image 1: Mugshot of the Man

We isolated the first image and then performed a reverse image search on it using the Google search engine.

This led us to a report published in Times Union on 12 October 2016. It identified the man as Todd M Warnken, a 55-year-old Trump supporter who allegedly threatened a black woman and used racial slurs.

The police later arrested the man.

A different report published in The Guardian with the headline, "Violence in the name of Trump" also carried the mugshot of the man.

Image 2: Scuba Driver 

We performed a reverse image search on the second image and supplemented it with keywords such as "diver finds nuke".

We came across an article published by DW in 2014, which had the same picture.

It mentioned that millions of tons of fire bombs and poisonous gases are still rotting in the water off the coast of Gemany coast.

It further said that in a British air raid in 1943, thousands of bombs were dropped on a German military site.

These bombs are still rotting beneath the water, and around 65 bombs are discovered on the coastline every year.

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What About the Man Powering His Home With a Nuclear Bomb?

That was a piece of satire published on the website of World News Daily Report with the headline, "GEORGIA: AMATEUR DIVERS FIND LONG-LOST NUCLEAR WARHEAD".

The website had a disclaimer that said the articles posted on the website are satirical and fictional in nature.

The headline was picked from here, and then a collage of two unrelated photos was used to create the viral post. However, users started sharing the post as a real incident.

The website also regularly posts satirical articles created for "entertainment purposes only".

Evidently, a satirical article about a man in Florida using a nuclear bomb to generate electricity for his house is being falsely shared on the internet.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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