In May 2026, social media users claimed police had arrested a woman after she posed as a Costco employee for nearly four hours, during which time she passed out 220 meatball samples.
For example, on May 12, a Threads user posted (archived) an alleged mug shot of a young white woman with blond hair. That image was overlaid with the words "Woman poses as a Costco sample employee and hands out her own meatballs to unsuspecting shoppers." The Threads post, which received millions of views, read, "She served 220 homemade meatballs inside Costco for 4 hours before anyone stopped her. The badge said 'MEATBALL MANAGER (UNOFFICIAL).'"
(@dyktfacts accessed via Threads)
Other users posted the rumor with the same purported mug shot, or different images, on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and X (archived).
Some users seemed to believe the rumor about the meatball giveaway. A Snopes reader also contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.
In short, this story was fictional. The tale originated from the Instagram account for The Dude Humor Report, which labels its content as satire and parody.
On May 4, The Dude Humor Report originally shared a different meme on Instagram (archived), naming the supposed arrestee as 31-year-old Sienna Halverson, and identifying the Costco as being in Glendale, Arizona. The image including a woman's mug shot different from the one in the above Threads post, a view of the woman passing out meatball samples and a close-up look at meatballs in sample cups.
The image displayed graphics for WNTL News 4 — which searches confirmed is not a real local
In a previous email to Snopes, a person associated with The Dude Humor Report identifying themself only as Mel pointed to the satire labels in the account bio and posts' hashtags.
Researching the Costco rumor
To determine the rumor's origin, we first searched for information about police arresting a woman for handing out meatball samples at Costco. Searches located the original Instagram post from The Dude Humor Report, as well as other users' social media posts.
If police had truly arrested a woman for impersonating a Costco employee and handing out food, local news outlets in Arizona likely would have reported on the incident. That was not the case, according to our searches.
The Dude Humor Report's Instagram account bio also clarifies that the page shares satirical content. It reads, "This page features satire and parody stories that are exaggerated, developing fictional — created for entertainment purposes only." The account features dozens of similar posts with purported mug shots of women who have allegedly been arrested for surprising reasons.
As for the memes and purported mug shots, scans of the images with Google's SynthID Detector — a tool that can find and confirm an invisible watermark in Google AI-created images — said Google's AI tools did not generate the content. Reverse image searches also did not locate information suggesting the purported mug shot pictures showed real women.
Sienna Halverson hands out meatballs at Costco
The Dude Humor Report's Instagram post featured a story along with the meme users shared. It began:
WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER POSING AS A COSTCO SAMPLE EMPLOYEE — WAS HANDING OUT HER OWN MEATBALLS GLENDALE, AZ — A 31-year-old woman was arrested Saturday afternoon at a Costco Wholesale after spending nearly four hours impersonating a sample employee — distributing 220 homemade meatballs from a folding table she had set up next to the actual deli kiosk.
Sienna Halverson was taken into custody after a real Costco vendor noticed her hairnet was a Dollar Tree shower cap and her name tag read "MEATBALL MANAGER (UNOFFICIAL)."
According to the police report, Halverson's setup included:
- A 14-quart Crock-Pot she had wheeled in on a Costco flatbed cart
- 220 meatballs hand-rolled at home using a recipe she called "GRANDMA'S DEFIANCE"
- A printed laminated sign reading "TRY THE NEW ONES — JUDGES' CHOICE"
- A second sign reading "SCAN MY VENMO"
- 41 toothpicks she had purchased on the way in using her own membership card
- A black apron stitched with "ASK ABOUT MY SAUCE"
- A stack of business cards labeled "HALVERSON HOSPITALITY LLC"
Later in the tale, The Dude Humor Report dropped one of several clues that the story was not true with the sentence, "A nearby pallet of paper towels declined to comment."
The post ended with hashtags indicating it was intended to be humorous and satirical, including #comedy, #satire and #forentertainmentonly.
For further reading, we previously investigated whether a woman was fired after an audit revealed she held three separate full-time positions at three different companies.
Here's why Snopes investigates stories described as satire or parody.