CULPEPER COUNTY, Va. — The Culpeper County Sheriff's Office found its self this week investigating a false claim on Facebook that it had stopped a person in their car to enforce a stay-at-home order.
A post by a woman in the county sparked an abundance of emails and calls to the department that forced CCSO to look further into the claim.
After CCSO reached out to the woman, she said her son told her that deputies with the department pulled over her son and asked for the license, registration and "paperwork from his employer to show he was an essential employee," according to the department. The woman's son then told her that the deputy told him they were enforcing the stay-at-home order and that he needs to have his papers out.
While CCSO found out that the entire story by the son was false, it did have to use resources to respond to this claim.
"Although the current order from the Governor is to stay at home with the exception of certain essential reasons, Culpeper Sheriff's Office is NOT stopping people to check for any type of paperwork to verify their reason for traveling the roadways," said Culpeper in its Facebook statement.
CCSO said this is the second time that a false story involving its department on social media has had to be investigated.
D.C., Maryland and Virginia all have stay-at-home orders that have been put in place to help combat the coronavirus and as a way to enforce social distancing.
Law enforcement agencies across the DMV have been trying to assure residents that it isn't seeking to make residents' lives harder by pulling them over, but it is part of the new laws that are in place — police do have the authority to do this.
D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bower said in a press conference on Tuesday that it does not expect to see police in the District pulling over out-of-state drivers with out-of-state licenses.