Social media rumours of armed robbery in Rugby turn out to be false (now, there's a surprise!)

We all know people who can't help themselves by putting rumours on social media pages which tend to be completely false.

And that is what happened today (Monday) when rumours spread like wildfire about an armed robbery in Regent Street after a post on a local community page.

We were in town covering stories (of course) so we paid a visit to Regent Street. People in town were talking about it - but a quick chat with a friendly town ranger was all it needed to find out that the truth was something far more mundane.

'Officers swooped into Regent Street...to help with a welfare check after a leak at a property'.

We realise that writing about something that didn't happen is hardly news and opens us up for ridicule - but given the rumours circling around town, we feel it is necessary to put the record straight.

We are a trusted local paper, after all, and it is our job to set the record straight. Social media community pages don't have to do that.

Rugby Police even took to Facebook themselves to set the record straight. They said: "It wasn't particularly dramatic and the only thing they had to use was their notebooks.

"Surprisingly, random posts on social media are not always completely based in reality.

"Thanks to the local media outlet who contacted us to make us aware of this rumour so we could publicly address it."