Weatherman under fire for threatening to shoot kids if they ring his doorbell
A Texas weatherman's bizarre post has gone viral after he said the quiet parts out loud and posted a warning to children ringing his doorbell.
Chris Robbins', meteorologist and founder of 'iWeatherNet', which covers weather events in Dallas, Fort Worth and Atlanta, Georgia, posted the warning on Monday morning - but it wasn't a weather alert.
What followed was several edits in response to backlash - but some of his 116K Facebook followers were able to screenshot the OP comments and repost it to their own accounts.
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The Facebook post read: "A child just rang my doorbell. Folks you do NOT ring doorbells in 2023. My 6 was loaded. Keep your kids away. Chris."
Signing off by name, the post indicates Robbins was behind the account's message.
One Facebook user, Stefani Seeley, replied: "So you're willing to shoot someone just because they rang your doorbell?
"Stand your ground isn't meant for that and the way you're nearly threatening anyone, specifically kids, is disgusting and why some people shouldn't have guns."
Robbins' reply, which was since deleted and posted to Twitter by Seeley, was simply: "I'm not f***ing around."
The post trended on Twitter on Monday, fuelling a second wave of backlash against iWeatherNet's post, with the account repeatedly defending itself with edits.
Robbins claimed the child who rang his doorbell was a little girl who was looking for her kitten, admitting that he was 'impatient' and was 'just playing' but that 'it really is a bad idea for kids roaming around ringing doorbells.'
A later edit read: "This is not 1972. If that brat rings my doorbell again tomorrow, I will call the police. take notes."
Robbins added that he 'warned' the little girl he 'might pull her hair' if she rang his doorbell again, which led to her 'crying', calling the incident a 'learning opportunity' for her.
Robbins also added several replies to his own post, repeatedly saying 'she will get her hair pulled tomorrow' and 'please accept my apology' - it's unclear whether the repeat comments were accidental.
His followers were, for the most part, horrified by his comments.
"How is threatening someone who rings your doorbell something that is normal?" a 'top fan' of the page asked.
"Unless someone is kicking down the door, this is a psychotic worldview," one user told Robbins.
Robbins then put up slew of other non-weather-related posts, the most disturbing being a link to a video about Ralph Yarl in an apparent attempt to prove his point.
Yarl, a 16-year-old Black teenager from Missouri, was hospitalised after allegedly shot by 84-year-old Andrew Lester, for getting the wrong address and ringing his doorbell accidentally last month - just one of several recent, similar incidents result in arrests.
On Tuesday, Robbins took to his keyboard once again, defending himself on Facebook saying: "For the record, I never threatened a 6 year old.
"I warned her about ringing doorbells. Good advice in 2023," Robbins said in the post. "Turns out she was looking for her kitten. I saw animal control in the neighborhood. I helped her find her kitten. We got her kitten back. Do not ring doorbells in 2023."
Robbins claimed he's been receiving death threats but warned that he knows 'all the police and the chief in Atlanta/Fulton County'.
He said: "Y’all can laugh at me. I did something good in my life. What did you do? God is watching. And I didn’t shoot anyone at the door. My 6 is sitting over there."
UNILAD had reached out to iWeatherNet for comment.
Amelia Jones