After seeing majestic snow-capped mountains in a TikTok video labeled "Gastonia, North Carolina," a Florida woman convinced her family to take a detour on their NC road trip, driving an hour out of their way to see the splendor for themselves. She said the video looked "like a little town out of Disney movie."
But when they got there, all they saw was a flat town of gas stations and winter-bare trees. It turned out the video was just a joke, its footage actually showing a scenic town in Switzerland.
Posting fake location videos is what TikToker Zachary Keesee does, so when a viewer suggested he troll Gastonia, he posted this:
But Olivia Garcia was new to Keesee's line of humor, and took the video seriously.
"Once we started kind of going out of the mountains, I was a little suspicious," she told WSOC, explaining how they had just left the mountainous NC town of Boone. "I'm like, 'When are the mountains going to start back up again? We were 20 minutes out of the way then, and I was like, 'This doesn't seem right,' and once we got there, I was like, 'Oh God, this isn't it.'"
Fortunately she had a sense of humor about it, and posted this TikTok video poking fun at the situation:
Once the videos went viral, Gastonia's mayor, Walker E. Reid III, chimed in with an upbeat reaction: "Apparently we are the talk of the town! And while Gastonia is certainly not Switzerland, we're glad people are learning more about our great city."
He then invited both TikTokers to give Gastonia another go, according to UPI.
"We're glad to see so many people having fun with Zachary Keesee's post and hopefully Ms. Garcia will come back to see all the great things our city has to offer," he said. "In fact, if they want to contact me, I'd love to give them a personal tour and show them what makes our city tick."
