Last week on Reddit, a kid posted about his Miata-owning woes. The car was being bullied by vandals at his school. According to the 17-year-old owner, the car had been keyed eight times and the wipers had been snapped off.

“It also looks like someone took some sharp object and started stabbing at the rag top roof. All eight key marks with different words such as ‘F*g’ and ‘bitch boy ride’ all over. I talked to my friends about it and they all just said “lol yeah thats what you get for owning a Miata.”

Despite zero photo evidence, the story was quickly picked up by the media and huge amounts of support was shown, including on these pages.

When TexasImportsToday recently reached out to the kid to ‘do something special’ for him, that’s when the story began to unravel:

“UPDATE: Founder of the car group has been notified that it’s a possible troll. He’s keeping an open mind and considering all scenarios.”

With the internet keen on an update from the kid (had the vandals been caught? Had the school released a statement?), he wrote:

“My parents/family have decided that for the sake of publicity, we did not go through with the news report. The kids have been caught, as for the school they couldn’t give a sh*t less (…)



“Now for the sad part, my father sold the Miata while i was at school. Again, my parents blamed the car and not me, saying it was the main reason. As much as i hate the decision, and adored the car, i can see why my father would do so.”

The fact that the kid’s father would have covertly sold his car (for which he originally paid $4300 for) seems highly unlikely. The fact that vandals would openly target the car from the outset also seems very unlikely, but not impossible.

The final nail in the story’s coffin came when TexasImportsToday heard the following news:

“Some commenters personally know principals within the Frisco HS district and none of the higher ups have heard about any trouble regarding a Miata or a butthurt dude/troll for that matter. Case closed.”

This seems bizarre because according to the kid, the school had been notified, and the huge publicity would have meant that the people at the top would have heard about the incidents.

The 17-year-old owner of the ‘bullied’ Miata has since deleted his Reddit account.

If anyone can verify this seemingly implausible story, then let us know. But until then, it seems that we were all duped into thinking that a young Miata owner needed our help. Welcome to the internet.