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Remember Victoria Wilcher, the 3-year-old girl who, left marred by her family’s three pit bulls, was asked to leave a KFC in Jackson, Mississippi in May?

Victoria and her family were allegedly asked to leave the restaurant because her facial scars were too disturbing. But after the internet caught wind of the story of a disfigured little girl bullied by a multinational food conglomerate, they rallied around the family in support.

However, the Laurel Leader-Call in Mississippi is calling it a fundraising hoax — a “Kentucky Fried Hoax.” Apparently, the story Victoria’s grandmother told a local news station about the incident doesn’t match the facts.

The family shared the story on the Victoria’s Victories Facebook page, which documents her recovery from a pit bull attack that caused her to lose an eye and left half of her face paralyzed. They originally said Victoria and her grandmother were asked to leave a KFC that turned out to have been closed for years. Victoria’s aunt Teri Rials Bates, who manages the Facebook page, later backtracked by saying the incident happened at another KFC on Woodrow Wilson Drive near the hospital where Victoria went for treatment.

Security camera footage from that KFC and another location near the hospital doesn’t show any children matching Victoria’s description going into either restaurant on May 15, according to the Leader-Call. In addition to that already shady detail, there weren’t any orders taken that day that included both sweet tea and mashed potatoes – what Victoria’s grandmother claimed she ordered for her.

A source also explained that many customers from the nearby hospital suffering various ailments have been serviced at the KFC and none had ever been turned away.

“We’ve had people come in who were shot in the face. We’ve had them with tubes and wire sticking out. We never have asked anyone to leave. There is a physically challenged person working in the Woodrow Wilson location and one of the other [KFC] managers has a child with Tourette’s Syndrome,” the source said.

In a statement, KFC said it had not been able to verify the incident and have since hired a third-party consultant to look into the allegations. The restaurant has already committed $30,000 to help pay Wilcher’s medical bills; a spokesman said they would pay regardless of the investigation’s findings.

The family’s attorney, Bill Kellum, told the Leader-Call that the family has not decided whether or not to accept the $30,000 donation from KFC.

Guilty conscience, perhaps?

SOURCE: WashingtonPost | PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter