Authentic footage shows singer Justin Timberlake falling face first to the ground in June 2024 as a police officer attempted to conduct a sobriety test.
At the time of writing, there is no known authentic footage of Justin Timberlake undergoing a police breathalyzer test. The clip in question is a prank video that has been circulating online since 2009 and does not feature Timberlake.
On June 18, 2024, pop singer Justin Timberlake was arrested in the Hamptons, New York, on suspicion of drunk driving, police said.
After the news broke, many on social media posted joke videos playing on the idea that police might be giving the singer a breathalyzer test. One video in particular went viral because it purportedly showed real footage of Timberlake taking a breathalyzer test. It shows a police officer telling a man (identity unknown) to help him put tape on the ground. As the man does so, he falls face-first onto the concrete, injuring himself.
The above video does not show Timberlake, let alone taking a breathalyzer test. Currently (at the time of this writing) there is no public footage of the test itself available, but we will update this story if it becomes available. This video was posted online years before Timberlake’s arrest in 2024, so we rate this video and claim as “miscaptioned.”
Using Google’s reverse image search, we were able to trace the original video back to 2009, when it appeared on YouTube. The timestamps in the upper right of the footage date the incident to October 2006.
The footage in the X post appeared to be a zoomed-in and blurred version of the video above.
The same blurred version of the video with the “Sky2” logo at the top left was already published on YouTube in 2016.
According to new reports, surveillance footage showed Timberlake’s vehicle being driven through the Hamptons before his arrest. Sag Harbor police released his mug shot on July 18.
The pop star reportedly failed breathalyzer tests, was arraigned and released without bail about nine hours after his arrest. Timberlake pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated and a court date was set for July 26, 2024.
