Video of police stopping roadside cook is AI

Matthew Elmas November 18, 2025
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The video has been shared on social media, accompanied with anti-immigration comments. Image by AAP/TikTok

WHAT WAS CLAIMED

 A video shows police reprimanding a man for cooking on the side of a motorway.

OUR VERDICT

False. The video is AI-generated.

AAP FACTCHECK - A video showing a police officer reprimanding a man for cooking a curry on the side of the motorway isn't real.

The video has been created with artificial intelligence (AI) and carries the watermark of Open AI's text-to-video tool, Sora. 

Several users have posted the video to Facebook in recent days after it was widely shared on TikTok, with the footage purporting to show a man cooking curry on the side of an Australian motorway.

A screenshot of a Facebook post.
The video originated on TikTok and mimics a clip of another supposed highway cook posted in the UK. (AAP/Facebook)

The AI video is from the perspective of a police officer's body camera.

"G'day mate, you can't be cooking here on the shoulder, it's really not safe," the officer says. "I'm going to have to ask you to switch that off for me."

"I'm just making some curry sir, my kids are hungry," the man responds.

"I understand that, but this is the M7," the officer adds. 

A screenshot of the TikTok video.
The clip has a watermark that identifies it as being created by the text-to-video AI tool, Sora. (AAP/TikTok)

"Indian in Australia no wonder Australian or infact [sic] the west sick of them with their behaviour?" a Facebook post sharing the TikTok video reads. 

The video isn't real and mimics a similar AI-generated clip showing UK police stopping a man from cooking a curry on the side of the road.

While the video being shared in Australia displays the Sora watermark, the UK one doesn't.

A screenshot of a Facebook post.
A similar video showing a man cooking beside a UK motorway has also been shared widely. (AAP/Facebook)

However, it still displays clear signs of AI generation, with several large trucks in the background driving along the motorway backwards throughout the short video.

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Sources

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