Allegations against a Voodoo Doughnut founder have garnered headlines in local and national media over the last month, accusing Tres Shannon of running a child trafficking ring out of the business.

Police, however, say no one has filed an official report and the accusations are not credible.

"The Police Bureau is aware of allegations made on social media regarding Voodoo Doughnuts," bureau spokesperson Sgt. Chris Burley said.

The rumor originated in a video posted on YouTube by a Portland man, and the allegations were first reported by Media Matters for America.

"A detective has investigated the allegation and attempted to contact the reporting person," Burley said. "Based on information gathered at this time it is not believed the allegations are credible."

Burley said he initially "received numerous emails and tweets regarding the allegations," but that those have since died down.

Shannon declined to comment on the allegations, and emails to the chain's corporate offices went unreturned. A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive was asked to leave Voodoo's downtown Portland store after attempting to speak with employees.

Eamon Monaghan, a manager at the downtown location of Voodoo, told NBC that calls about the allegations "were coming in hourly" with callers saying, "we know what is happening at your place."

"We're trying to firmly but politely say this isn't a thing and carry on with our business and ignore it," Monaghan is quoted as saying.

The allegations were first published in a now-deleted YouTube video Aug. 4 on the channel "Lift the Veil."

The channel, run by former luxury car salesman Nathan Stoplman, is known for pushing conspiracy theories, including alleging celebrities and businesses are either Satanists or pedophiles, popular targeting techniques of online harassment campaigns.

Michael Whalen, 31, of Portland told Stoplman that unknown forces were working to keep him quiet about Shannon and Voodoo Doughnut.

Court records show Whalen was the subject of eviction proceedings from his apartment in east Portland at the time. Both he and Stoplman asked viewers to contribute to Whelan's PayPal -- which has also been shut down -- throughout the Lift the Veil broadcast.

According to the NBC report, Voodoo's social media and Yelp pages have been "flooded" with comments from conspiracy theorists, though a look at those pages this week found not even a single such comment, beyond one person repeatedly posting a link to a follow-up Lifting the Veil video with Whalen reiterating the allegations.

-- Lizzy Acker and Eder Campuzano