As social media buzzes with concern over reports of missing children across Virginia, a new trend has added to the unease: Videos of ice cream trucks allegedly operating well past midnight.

One TikTok video posted by user @haleyybaylee showed an ice cream truck driving slowly down a dimly lit street at 1:23 a.m. The overlay text reads:

“ok who’s creepy idea was an ice cream truck at 1:23am”

The video quickly went viral, amassing over 196,000 likes and sparking heated discussion in the comments. Some viewers found the scene odd but harmless, while others connected it to growing fears surrounding recent reports of missing children in the state.

Chris Brown, a singer-songwriter originally from Tappahannock, Virginia, took to Instagram last week to draw attention to viral social media posts alleging a wave of child abductions across his home state.

The 36-year-old father of three shared the following message to his Instagram Story:

“Am I the only one concerned about all these kids going missing in VIRGINIA?”

“Parents, make sure y’all keeping an eye on y’all children. Please.”

Virginia State Police responded to the rumors about the large number of missing children across the Commonwealth. They confirmed there is no evidence of mass abductions and no active investigations into such events.

VSP explained that, unlike other states, it forwards every missing child case in Virginia to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Therefore, there are more Virginia cases on the NCMEC website than other states, which often use their own websites to keep track of missing cases.

Virginia does this to centralize missing children’s cases so they can all be reviewed in one location.

John Bischoff, Vice President of the Missing Children Division at NCMEC, referenced the online rumors.

“When that information gets out into the public, as false as it may be, it blossoms, and other people latch on to it.”

Bischoff noted that the past week has been a catalyst of misinformation, resulting in an uptick of calls to VSP and the NCMEC call center, WTOP reports.

Bischoff offered reassurance that, “They’re not investigating anything mass-related or anything like that. Here in the state of Virginia, if we were, we would absolutely sound the alarm for a huge public outcry, but that’s not the case.

“What we do have are missing children. Each and every day, we deal with missing child cases, and we need the public’s help in finding those missing children.”

By law, local agencies must report cases of missing children to Virginia State Police within two hours of receiving a report.

Anecdotally, the majority of missing children are reportedly runaways, and most return shortly after being reported.

[Feature Photo: Pixabay]