Police in Ireland and the UK have said the viral Cat in the Hat sightings spreading on TikTok are fake, after the posts frightened teenagers who thought the character might be real. One post showing the original costume with the caption "Help, what do I do?" drew 14.6m views in three weeks.
Skye and Lily on TikTok
Skye, 16, said the videos hit hardest during a sleepover. "I was having a sleepover," she said, "but everyone started watching Cat in the Hat videos." She added: "It was 3am." Then, after walking down her friends' driveway, she said: "I got totally freaked out that the Cat in the Hat was going to jump out."
"I had to call my mum to pick me up," Skye said, describing why she left. Lily, 14, reacted differently to the same flood of posts. "I low-key wanna go meet him…" she said, showing how the same viral clips could be taken as a joke by one teenager and as a threat by another.
Gardaí and South Yorkshire Police
Wexford Gardaí said the sightings in Wexford were fake and that the images had been generated using artificial intelligence. South Yorkshire Police also denied social media claims that a "killer Cat in the Hat" had been spotted, while a fake Facebook post tried to make it look as if the force was taking the rumour seriously.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson warned people to check where advice is coming from before trusting it online: "If you do see posts online providing policing updates and advice, please check that they are from an official policing account." The same spokesperson added: "The cat is not out of the hat on this one… Please don't believe everything you read on social media."
AI posts across Ireland and the UK
The pattern behind the hoax was simple: real costume footage, AI-generated images and warning-style captions were mixed together until the fake story looked more credible than it was. One account created this week posted videos of a person in a Cat in the Hat costume dancing with captions including "Kent I'm coming. lock your doors," while many of the AI images were centered on Limerick and Wexford.
Around the same time, comments linked the character to conspiracy theories and unverified claims of violent assaults, which helped spread fear even after police had spoken publicly. A post circulating around the character was also tied in comments to Mike Myers and the 2003 film, but the only material fact that matters for readers is that the imagery and claims were false, and the safest next step is to treat policing advice online as real only when it comes from an official account.
