Staged Pakistani ‘robber and child’ video shared as real incident
A video has been circulating in Bangladeshi media claiming that a man entered a shop with the intention of robbery. But Pakistani robber’s heart melted because of a child’s behavior and left without stealing. Several media outlets published reports on this incident. Dismislab’s factcheck found that it was a video made for entertainment for a YouTube channel.
A video was posted on the Facebook page of Bangladeshi media outlet Kalbela World with the caption, “The robber’s heart melted at the innocence of the child–he returned the money and kissed the girl!” In the 1:28-minute video, a man wearing a white pajama and a panjabi, with his face covered in a black cloth, enters a shop and takes money from the shopkeeper.
At that moment, a little girl sitting beside the shopkeeper extends her lollipop toward the robber. This makes the man change his mind; he returns the money and gently pats the child before leaving. At the 41-second mark of the video, a voice says that this incident took place in Pakistan. Facebook users believed the incident to be real and left various comments.
One user commented, “Anything is possible in Pakistan.” Another commented, “If this were Bangladesh, they would’ve held a pistol to the child’s head and taken everything. This is the difference between people in Bangladesh and outside.” The same video was also uploaded on a YouTube channel named Kalbela World.
Several Bangladeshi media outlets (1, 2, 3) published reports about this incident. Citing Pakistan’s ARY News, the Daily Janakantha reported on 19 November, “The armed robber could not hold himself back after seeing the innocent behavior of the child. He returned the stolen money and even kissed the girl on the head before leaving. It felt like a scene from a movie. A video of this went viral recently on social media. The incident took place in Pakistan. However, the exact location could not be confirmed.” All the reports stated that the incident happened in Pakistan.
Additionally, the video was shared from multiple Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3) and Instagram accounts (1, 2).
While verifying the videos, Dismislab found a YouTube channel named “Kamran Team Official.” A Shorts uploaded on 16 November on this channel matches exactly with the video circulating in the media. The caption of the Shorts is written in Urdu, “The robber’s heart melted.” Inside the Shorts, the Urdu text says, “The girl thought the robber might take her lollipop, so she gave it to him herself.” The hashtags include “Shorts viral,” “Shorts feed,” and “Kamran Team Official.”
The description of the Shorts says, “This video is staged, and the people appearing in it are actually characters (actors), and the weapons shown in this video are fake. The purpose of this video is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. This video does not represent any individual or any institution. This video is made only for entertainment. Thank you.” The video has been viewed over one million times so far.
Analysis of the Kamran Team Official channel revealed multiple videos with nearly the same script and setting (1, 2, 3). In these videos, a man pretending to be a robber enters a shop with a weapon. Later, due to some situations, he leaves without committing the robbery. Most videos feature the same two people repeatedly. Several other robbery-related staged videos can be found on the channel. The channel has around 82,000 subscribers. It is operated from Pakistan, and all their videos include disclaimers stating that they are made only for entertainment.
Pakistani media also published reports about this video. On 17 November, several reports (1, 2, 3) were published. The Neutral reported that a viral CCTV video from Pakistan shows a robbery attempt turning unexpectedly emotional when a little girl offers a lollipop to the armed robber.
A day later, on 18 November, several Indian media outlets (1, 2) published reports on the incident. News18 reported that a surprising incident captured on a shop’s CCTV camera went viral, showing how a terrifying robbery attempt turned into something completely unexpected. The incident took place somewhere in Pakistan.
Pakistani media outlet The Current has already published a factcheck on the video. The video they verified matches exactly with the video shared by Kalbela and the videos posted by other media outlets. According to the report, the video first spread in WhatsApp groups and was later reshared by mainstream media.
The Current’s report states that the video was created by a YouTube channel called Kamran Team Official. The channel has at least 172 videos, most of them edited CCTV-style clips. The videos range from humorous to those with social messages. The report also mentions that the shop shown in the viral robbery video, the actors, and even the toy gun have appeared repeatedly in many other videos.
Dismislab published a report in 2024 explaining how staged videos create public confusion, and how staged videos produced in Bangladesh were later spread in India as misinformation.
