Claim: Photographs show a series of cranes falling into water while attempting to retrieve an automobile.
Status: Multiple:
Photographs show a crane tipping and falling into water while trying to retrieve a submerged automobile: True.
Photograph shows a second crane tipping and falling into water while trying to retrieve the first crane: False.
Origins: The first eight photographs in this series — showing a crane attempting to retrieve an automobile from a body of water, the crane tipping and falling into the water itself, and a second crane fishing both vehicles out of the water — appear to be genuine photographs of an incident that reportedly took place in Ireland at Roundstone Pier, Conemmara, Galway, around September 2004 (as described in one breathless, paragraph-long sentence):
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| We have certainly have had our ups and downs in the village this year what with somebody falling off the village wall, thank god not killed, and then in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a car goes into the Harbour, with a young man at the wheel, the car landed upside down and if it was not for the vigilance Mary King who alerted Sean de Courcey, Sean fair play to him pulled this man out of the car, which was nearly totally submerged in the tide and pulled him to safety, what ever way you look at it, Sean saved his life, yet again another near fatal accident, and then I suppose on the slightly humorous side and to add insult to injury, a tow truck was called out to pull the car out, now get this, the truck fell in while trying to lift the car, no don't worry there was no one in it, it was remote controlled, but the machine was not heavier enough to lift the car out, therefore, a proper professional machine had to be called in, and the job was done, no loss of life, what was interesting the amount of people that came to have a look at this task you would think we had another social event going on. | |
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However, the last photograph — showing the second crane also tipping and falling into the water — is what makes this series particularly appealing to viewers, but it's clearly just an altered version of the fifth image. (Among other tell-tale signs, the bystanders to the right of the crane are in the very same positions in these two photos, and the small white boat seen in the left-hand portion of these pictures has disappeared in the penultimate photo but oddly reappears in the last frame.)
