With great courage and wit, “Dave on Wheels” — a profoundly deaf quadriplegic stricken by Cerebral Palsy — touched the hearts of thousands on Twitter, becoming an internet and media celebrity — and then he died.
What a sick bastard.
No, not Dave, he never existed — it was all an elaborate deceit. The perpetrator of the hoax used the images of one Hunter Dunn who is very real, then created Dave, updating his Twitter feed with amusing asides as he faced his battles.
The website theChive reveals how the fabrication was unveiled by this Blogspot article “Dave on Wheels Exposed” — it’s worth a read. When outed, Dave’s creator posted, “It’s possible that more damage has been done in your reveal than in the original deception”. Really? I call bullshit.
Sounds like this moron is putting himself up as some deity for people to believe in to enhance their miserable lives. Hardly. He’s just a lowlife who has scammed thousands.
Not for money — far worse — their emotions.
The saga of Dave on Wheels (that line sounds like a really crap country song) raises an interesting point. Have we all become too gullible? Too sucked in by what’s posted on Facebook and Twitter? The ease in which “Dave” created numerous identities and strung along his Twitter followers and media outlets was quite staggering.
To quote numerous characters from the old Scooby Doo cartoon… “If only they used their power for good not evil.”
©Steve Williams 2012