Claim:
A 5-year-old boy once approached former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal at a Los Angeles diner to tell him about his father abusing his mother.
A rumor circulating online claimed that a 5-year-old boy once approached former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal at a Los Angeles diner to tell him his father was abusing his mother.
One Snopes reader even asked in an email: "Did Shaq really help a little boy save his mother from his father who had hurt his mother and taken him?"
The most prominent example of the claim originated in a Nov. 4, 2024, video posted to the Compassionate YouTube channel. The title read: "5-Year-Old Boy Whispers To Shaq In Diner - He Turns Pale & Quickly Calls 911!" and the footage had amassed more than 600,000 views as of this writing.
In the 15-minute YouTube video, the narrator said O'Neal was enjoying lunch at a restaurant called Max's Diner when a 5-year-old boy named Kevin Hargrove approached the former NBA star and allegedly told him: "He hurt mommy really bad today."
The narrator then said O'Neal called the police and positioned himself between Kevin and a man in a suit — his father, Marcus Hargrove. Marcus was said to be attempting to flee the country with his son to prevent the boy's mother, Sarah Hargrove, from gaining custody of Kevin.
Officers and paramedics later allegedly found Sarah unconscious on the floor at the family's home, having suffered a severe head injury. The story ended on an inspirational note supposedly months later, with Kevin receiving a young hero award from the local police department, Sarah fully recovering and Marcus spending years in prison on multiple felony charges.
Some people commenting on the footage appeared to believe it was true. For example, one user said: "God placed Shaq in the right place at the right time. God Bless Shaq." Another personwrote: "Thank God the little boy spoke up and to the right person. Shaq is a hero."
However, the story was completely fictional. Therefore, we have rated this claim as false.
Snopes contacted both the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and O'Neal's philanthropic foundation, The Shaquille O'Neal Foundation, to ask about this matter. Our correspondence with the LAPD is noted later in this article. We will update this story if we receive any further details from the foundation.
This story is an example ofglurge — a term defined byDictionary.com as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental."
Why Rumor Is False
We found no evidence to support the claims in the footage, and no credible news outlets had ever reported such a story. On the contrary, everything pointed to it being a fabricated tale posted on YouTube in order to earn advertising revenue.
Further, the story was vague and lacked detail. For instance, the video failed to state when these events supposedly took place. There was also no record of a present-day Los Angeles restaurant specifically named Max's Diner. The video's narrator claimed O'Neal sat in "his usual corner." However, if O'Neal — a former basketball great — regularly frequented the same restaurant, there would likely be online records of his visits to his favorite diner. However, Google Search results produced no such accounts.
A spokesperson for the LAPD told Snopes by phone that, without a date of occurrence or a mailing address for where the incident took place, the agency would be unable to immediately provide information about a case.
The Compassionate YouTube channel featured videos telling other evidence-free stories. For example, several videos made repeated claims about police finding mysterious and secret tunnels under popular American eateries, such as Burger King, Domino's and McDonald's restaurants.
In addition, another video posted by Compassionate on July 1, 2024, had a similar title and told an almost identical story of an abusive husband and father but replaced O'Neal with a police officer and the 5-year-old boy with a 4-year-old boy. The title read: "4-Year-Old Boy Whispers To Cop In Diner - He Turns Pale & Quickly Calls Backup!" The clip had garnered more than 1.6 million views as of this writing.
Video Featured Elements of AI
The video claiming a 5-year-old boy approached O'Neal at a diner to tell him about his father abusing his mother featured numerous elements of artificial intelligence (AI). For example, the thumbnail image supposedly showed the 5-year-old boy hugging O'Neal.
A user generated that image — and the clip's narration — with an AI tool. One telltale sign that the picture was not genuine was that the same photo appeared as the thumbnail image for the July video about the police officer and a 4-year-old boy. For the more recent November video, a user associated with the Compassionate YouTube channel simply added O'Neal's face on top of that of the officer and altered the boy's head.
This screenshot compares the thumbnail images of the older and newer videos, both of which tell fictional stories.
All of the other YouTube videos mentioned above featured elements created with AI tools.
For further reading, we previously fact-checked other fictional stories about O'Neal, including one rumor claiming he threw actor George Clooney out of his restaurant.