72 hours on the streets of Paris with a fedora

A wonderful and lighthearted illustration of the 72-hour rule.  The 72-hour rule suggests waiting three days from some MSM or social media dramatic claim before reacting.  The probability is that the initial claim will be either debunked or materially changed in the first three days.  

In this instance, there is an epic theft of crown jewels from the Louvre in France.  

I saw the headlines about three days ago.  Soon after, I saw this post (without the community note.)

Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre in a brazen daylight robbery.

Somehow he looks like he’s smoking even without a cigarette in his hand, but surely everything you know about life is screaming… pic.twitter.com/YaaoGbzSjE

— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) October 22, 2025

Chen's full message is:

Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre in a brazen daylight robbery. 

Somehow he looks like he’s smoking even without a cigarette in his hand, but surely everything you know about life is screaming at you: this case is officially screwed!

To solve it, we need an unshaven, overweight, washed-out detective who's in the middle of divorce. A functioning alcoholic who the rest of the department hates.

Never gonna crack it with a detective who wears an actual fedora unironically.

Yesterday I see this clarification. 

Turns out the viral Louvre "detective" was just a rando walking around pic.twitter.com/4MC6rKlKaz

— François Valentin (@Valen10Francois) October 23, 2025

Yesterday evening we enter the humor phase.

That’s what the Pink Panther wants you to think… https://t.co/uHTFVUUhOc

— Armand D'Angour (@ArmandDAngour) October 23, 2025

And then this morning, a slightly slyer wit:

You should always dress in such a way that you are mistaken for a noir detective. https://t.co/zrEIUaKh6U

— Andrew Snyder (@Andrewnsnyder) October 23, 2025

That's quite the life-cycle of a piece of "news."  

A variant of the 10 hours walking in New York genre.

The original:

Click to enlarge.

And the spectacular derivative.

Click to enlarge.