No, a viral video of an alien in a Las Vegas backyard isn’t real

In late April, a Las Vegas resident called 911 to report something was happening that was… out of this world.

After a fireball was witnessed in the Las Vegas sky, at least one man called 911 to say he saw an 8-foot-tall “non-human” creature that looked like an alien in his backyard. 

Weeks after the 911 call in Las Vegas, a video clip was shared repeatedly across social media claiming to show footage of the creature from the incident crouching next to a fence.

“Watch! Actual #Alien Footage from the Las #Vegas #UFO Landing…. On Duty Area Las Vegas Police Captured Clear Dash Footage of the Flying UFO Aircraft on their Patrol Car Minutes Before The Same Officers Also Responded to Scene Where this Gentleman Recorded this Footage,” one tweet that has more than 8 million views says.

THE QUESTION

Is the viral video claiming to show an alien in a Las Vegas backyard real?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, a viral video claiming to show an alien in a Las Vegas backyard isn’t real. The video was created using actual news footage and computer graphics.

WHAT WE FOUND

The video isn’t real. It was created using a combination of real audio and video from a news report aired by KLAS TV, a Las Vegas TV station, and computer generated video of an alien created by a graphic artist.

On June 7, KLAS aired a report about the man who called 911 on April 30, claiming there was a creature in his Las Vegas yard. The report included audio from the April 911 call and police bodycam footage from officers who responded to the caller’s home. A YouTube video from that newscast can be found here.

Portions of the news report were used in the viral video, including audio from the man's 911 call and graphics shown over the call. The news station's logo and other branding can be seen in both the news report and the viral video.

But, the original news reports didn’t include any footage of an alien creature in the backyard. That footage, seen at the beginning and end of the fake video, was created by a graphic artist and edited into the clips of the newscast.

Using InVid and RevEye, two video forensics tools, VERIFY was able to trace the portion of the video with the alien figure to TikTok. It was posted by @owltreestump on June 8, one day after the KLAS broadcast aired. This is the first instance VERIFY found this particular video posted online.

The caption on the TikTok video reads: “Smh knew I shouldn’t investigate noises outside. #cryptid #cgi #blender3d #creepy,” the TikTok post said. The hashtags indicate this user used computer graphics program Blender 3D to create the CGI likeness of the alien.

Police also told local reporters they didn’t find anything when they investigated the scene. 

So, we can VERIFY the viral video of aliens in a backyard is fake. It was created using video clips from an actual newscast and from a CGI video of an alien.