Sad Woman’s ‘Nobody Came to My Baby Shower’ Pity Party Scams Hundreds of Gifts From Twitter

Twitter shows us the best and worst parts of humanity. There’s a lot of horribleness, but every once in a while people are moved by a sad story to try to help each other out, and that’s really sweet. This story captures both elements perfectly. When people on Twitter heard that a young woman had been stood up and left alone at her own baby shower, they rallied to send support and gifts. But then it turned out to be a giant scam.

sad baby shower scam

It all started when a woman posted a photo of the world’s most depressing baby shower to Twitter. It was just two rows of long tables at a Golden Corral in Ohio. The tables were decorated with pink tablecloths. Pink balloons lay on the floor, blown up but not even floating. The tables were bare and the seats were empty except for a forlorn-looking woman and a her boyfriend.

The woman, Dorothy Holmes, posted the photos on Twitter and said nobody had come to her best friend’s baby shower. Only Holmes and her boyfriend showed up.

Twitter was furious on the behalf of expectant mother Chelsie Collins, who purportedly paid for this big shower and nobody came.

The sad baby shower tweet was retweeted more than 16,000 times, and plenty of commenters asked for links so they could send Collins presents. According to SomeECards, more than 350 people sent registry gifts. Some people just sent Paypal donations. People were doing a whole lot for a pregnant lady they thought had been mistreated.

Collins and Holmes told the Irish Examiner that they’d invited 70 people to the shower via an event listing on Facebook. Only a handful marked “interested.” Then they said nobody actually showed up the day of the event.

“When the day came nobody showed up,” Holmes said. But that turned out not to be true.

The sad baby shower was fake

When someone actually bothered to check up on the story, The Golden Corral manager said the party had been booked for 12 people, and 12-15 people showed up.

Holmes then said that the story was true when she took the pictures and posted them on Twitter. It’s just that then people showed up later, which is totally different than being stood up at your baby shower.

”The moment the tweet was posted nobody was there. The tweet was 100 percent accurate at that point in time. It was not a turnout, her aunt was her only relative [at the party],” Holmes said. ”I had two of my personal friends. Her aunt brought three children, and her little sister was there. That was it ”¦ there was definitely not 12 people there.”

Holmes’ story isn’t even holding up now. She says her aunt was her friend’s only relative at the party, but her little sister was there. And so were the three kids. That’s five relatives right there.

Holmes seems to be bad at math. She also says there were not 12 people at the party, but Holmes and her boyfriend, Holmes’ two friends, the aunt and her kids, the little sister, and Collins are 10 altogether.

According to the Zanesville Times Recorder, Golden Corral surveillance video reportedly shows between 12 and 15 people at the baby shower. More than $4,500 worth of stuff was purchased for Collins from her baby registry.

They don’t think this counts as scamming

Holmes and Collins told The Cut that they don’t think they really did anything wrong, because they didn’t ask for the gifts. They just made arrangements for the gifts to arrive and set up a Paypal for donations.

https://twitter.com/blazinbombsheIl/status/890678390612742144

Holmes says she spoke to police, who say they didn’t technically do anything illegal by accepting tons of gifts without telling people that Collins didn’t really get abandoned at a baby shower.

https://twitter.com/blazinbombsheIl/status/890644635814551553

Somehow they’re taking, “not actually illegal” as a sign that this was all OK, when really it was pretty gross.

What do you think of the sad baby shower scam? Let us know in the comments.

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