Do these videos show alligators nabbing rotisserie chickens at Walmart stores in Florida?

In January 2026, at least three videos (archived, archived, archived) circulated online purportedly showing alligators snatching rotisserie chickens from Walmart stores in Florida. 

The clips, which looked like news reports, featured different footage of what appeared to be a thieving reptile with a rotisserie chicken clamped between its jaws. One version of the videos appeared as follows on the Facebook page “Extreme Living.”

The caption read: “Only in Florida tonight—an alligator casually walked into a Walmart, grabbed a rotisserie chicken, and ate it right in the store”

That footage also circulated on Instagram (archived) and Bluesky (archived), while Snopes readers contacted us asking if the videos and stories were real.

In short, the three videos of alligators allegedly stealing rotisserie chickens from Walmart stores were fake. The “About” page of the “Extreme Living” Facebook account that posted all three read: “Hey yall! Welcome to Extreme Living where we ai content that everyone can enjoy.” Its header image read: “America’s Favorite AI videos.” 

In line with the page’s own statements that it creates content using artificial intelligence (AI) software, all three clips of alligators allegedly stealing rotisserie chickens showed clear signs of AI use. 

Inspecting alligator videos

Extreme Living’s videos claimed that alligators had stolen rotisserie chickens in Ocala, St. Petersburg and Wesley Chapel, all in Florida. A search on Google (archived) uncovered no credible reports of such events occurring in any Walmart in Florida. 

Additionally, all three clips showed clear signs of AI use. 

(Facebook user Extreme Living/Snopes Illustration)

Extreme Living generated at least one of its alligator videos using Sora, a generative AI model from OpenAI. Sora’s watermark, which the tool adds to content created on its platform, appeared at two points in one clip.

Two additional videos had issues with garbled text. In one, a “reporter’s” microphone and jacket logo read “7 Lews,” while in another the microphone featured several illegible characters before the word “cast.” That video also featured signage inside a “Walmart” that read “Róehead” (possibly a garbling of “Reduced”) and showed what looked like an “A” instead of a price on one “Róehead” sign.

Garbled text such as incorrectly spelled words or the use of symbols that are not letters is a typical sign of AI use in images and videos.

The “7 Lews” report also showed a newsreader with distorted fingers, another classic indicator of AI-generation.

For further reading, Snopes routinely investigates and debunks AI-generated content.

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