A video shared on Facebook claims portable toilets have purportedly been set up outside a Walmart in Tennessee to accommodate migrants.

Screenshot captured via Facebook

Verdict: False

There is no evidence supporting the claim. Posts shared on Facebook in December 2023 and January 2024 indicate the Walmart in Sevierville, Tennessee is being renovated. A spokesperson for Walmart denied the claim’s validity in a phone call to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

An “amputated human finger” was recently discovered in the parking lot of an Ohio Walmart, according to police, CBS News reported. Police currently do not believe the amputation was “the result of suspicious actions” and are continuing to investigate how the finger ended up in the parking lot, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

The Facebook video, which has garnered over 5,000 likes, claims portable toilets have purportedly been set up outside a Walmart in Tennessee to accommodate migrants. “A couple of days ago, they said that all of a sudden, Tennessee is the new hot spot for migrants and then, all of a sudden, our local Walmarts are putting up camps with bathrooms in their parking lots,” the identified individual in the video says. A watermark featured on the bottom right corner of the video indicates it originally stems from TikTok.

The claim is false, however. Posts shared on Facebook in December 2023 and January 2024 indicate the Walmart in Sevierville, Tennessee is being renovated.

“Your local Walmart Neighborhood Market is getting ready for a new look! Our store will be going through remodel at the end of January 2024 but we are hiring now!! If you or anyone you know is interested in joining our remodel team, please complete an online application at http://wmtcareers.com/woaj. Positions will be temporary status to start, but can promote to a permanent position in the store,” the text of both posts reads.

Likewise, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. In fact, the opposite is true. Reuters debunked the claim in a Feb. 23 article. According to the outlet, the social media user who published the post said he “wasn’t being serious” when he made the claim and “never expected [it] to blow up like it did” upon being contacted for comment. (RELATED: Did Nicki Minaj’s Live Nation Page Warn About A Sex Offender Backstage?)

Additionally, Walmart has neither repeated the claim on its website nor its verified social media accounts.

Joe Pennington, a spokesperson for Walmart, denied the claim’s validity in a phone call to Check Your Fact.

“That store is going through a remodel and the bathrooms inside are [currently] closed,” Pennington explained, adding that the store should reopen in “about four days.”

Similarly, Pennington told Check Your Fact that Walmart sets up toilets outside its stores following natural disasters such as hurricanes to support members of the community. A post shared on Walmart’s website corroborates that the retailer partnered with non-profits to provide food, showers, and laundry at its stores in Florida and Georgia following Hurricane Idalia in August 2023.