Fact Check: The Unraveling of Memphis Tank Theft Allegations

The announcement by the American president in September 2025, directing military personnel to step in to stem rampaging criminal activities in Memphis, Tennessee, sparked off a fascinating phenomenon on the internet. This was met with an intriguing claim that Memphis residents had resorted to commandeering tanks through the city’s bustling streets. The rumor centrally hinged upon a video footage that supposedly epitomized this audacious act. A rather eye-catching narrative indeed, it, however, added another fascinating dimension to the President’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to address the growing problem of crime in the city.

The narrative rapidly gained online traction coinciding with the President’s directive on September 15, which marked a significant period when it captured the attention of an increasing number of people. Central to this narrative was the allegedly authentic video that depicted Memphis locals gallivanting with stolen U.S. National Guard tanks. Some reports insinuated that this was, arguably, a retaliation to the President’s initiative.

But a thorough exploration of the video and the wild assertions it supposedly upheld turned up surprising results. This investigation encompassed various search tools as well as popular search engines including Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, and Yahoo. The objective, understandably enough, was to track down any news outlets that carried the story of Memphis residents stealing National Guard tanks, but all of these efforts were to no avail.

A fundamental expectation here was that any such occurrence would have easily found space in extensive media coverage, especially given the scale of the incident as claimed by the circulating rumor. However, as the results from the exhaustive search effort implied, there was no substantial evidence supporting the assertion that prominent news outlets had indeed reported this incident.

Yet, upon applying a reverse-image search to individual frames of the alleged authentic video, one could derive a more accurate reality of the situation. The results of this technique revealed that the video had been featured in an entirely different context in an article dating back to June 5, 2020 — a good five years before the event of the National Guard’s deployment in Memphis.

Further search efforts confirmed the stark contrast between the video’s actual context and the claims circulating online. A blog post, dating back to the same day that the aforementioned article was published, unravelled this disjuncture. In it, the writer highlighted an interesting explanation around a local hip hop artist from Atlanta, Georgia, who had opted to rent tanks for his music video.

The blog post, also dated June 5, stated unequivocally, “No tanks were stolen from the National Guard in Atlanta. We have reports on record that they were simply outdated British military tanks utilized by a local artist to stage a music video.” This obviously undercut the theory of stolen National Guard tanks.

Corroborating the findings, a representative of the National Guard voiced an official statement, intending to lay to rest any lingering doubts or suspicions. According to their statement, the National Guard Bureau asserts that there were no instances of tank deployment in the streets of Memphis. This confirmed that the story was simply a misrepresentation of the original events.

In addition, it firmly stated that the National Guard Bureau had not detected any tank theft in Memphis, or anywhere else, further dispelling the rumor. Thus, the vibrant narrative about Memphis residents riding stolen tanks was finally declared to be a falsity, after diligent investigation and verification.

In hindsight, the alignment of certain elements led to the creation of this online belief. The timing of the circulation of the rumor, placed around the announcement of President’s decision for troop deployment, created the perfect framework for the hoax to flourish.

The association of the video in question with the false claim, and the fact that it pre-dated the event by nearly a half-decade, came to light only after a meticulous inquiry. A simple narrative was thus spun into a seemingly believable story, before aligning events clearly revealed its baseless background.

Through this incident, the importance and role of responsible information sharing and careful cross-verification of facts becomes unmistakable. It emphasizes the prowess of modern investigative methodologies, such as reverse image searches, in discerning fact from fiction.

Concrete evidence, sourced from trusted and official channels, served as the cornerstone for refuting the claim. The official spokesperson severed the links that were tying the stolen tanks to the National Guard’s activities in Memphis.

The story of stolen tanks being driven around Memphis turned out to be a constructed narrative, falsely linked to a completely unrelated video dating back to 2020. Hence, the narrative turned out to be nothing more than a baseless rumor propelled by a questionable claim, and egregious misinterpretation of an unrelated video.

Despite the dramatic allure of such claims, the reality remained grounded in identifiable facts. In the face of compelling evidence, the widespread suspicion of Memphis citizens commandeering military tanks was debunked.

In reinforcement of this truth, the claims about the stolen tanks were dismissed as mere allegations with no valid underpinning. Thus, an intriguing piece of internet lore was laid to rest through precise investigation and refutation, buttressing the importance of validating shared information before its circulation.