Video of an incident over a Citi Bike went viral and resulted in a false dogpile on a New York City hospital worker. It’s been viewed more than 42 million times.

This lady tried her best to weaponize her tears, but when she realized it wasn't going to work she switched it off and acted like nothing happened.

This should be criminal. pic.twitter.com/P1UW3gJZGf

— 🥀Imposter🥀 (@Imposter_Edits) May 14, 2023

The video showed the hospital worker trying to take a Citi Bike out of its location. Citi Bike is a rental bicycle that you can pay for. A young black man was intervening and not letting her remove it, saying it was his bike. He also had friends telling the woman to get off the bike. The woman started calling for help and said that she was pregnant.

Just that little interchange was enough to have the video spread everywhere with people who didn’t know the facts calling the woman a “racist” and a “Karen.” People even tried to dox the woman, others said that what she did was putting the young black men in the video in “danger.” You even had folks like lawyer Ben Crump claiming that she was attempting to steal the bike and was trying to blame the men. He later deleted the tweet.

False: pic.twitter.com/JGPkdpiMsq

— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) May 19, 2023

Because of the crazy dogpile on the woman, she was even put on leave from her job, with her employers calling the incident “disturbing” and that they were “investigating” what happened.

But the facts were far different than the story some were trying to sell.

It was indeed the woman’s bike and she was trying to take it out to go home after work. Her attorney has the receipts to prove it.

A receipt shared with Insider shows payment for a Citi Bike on the app on the evening of May 12 in Manhattan; the bicycle was re-locked to its dock a minute later with no charge logged.

The Citi Bike identification number in the viral video is the same as the one on the receipt and the location matches the view seen in the video.

“It was her bike,” lawyer Justin Marino said in an interview with Insider on Thursday.

Marino said that bike was pushed back into its docking station after a young Black man and his friends told the woman — a pregnant NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue staffer — that the man had already paid for the same bike.

“She had reserved it, and then they pushed the bike back into the docking station, preventing her from taking it out again,” Marino told Insider.

He said one of the individuals blocked the bike’s QR code preventing her from paying for it again so she could leave.

“In blocking the QR code, this individual’s arm was touching my client’s pregnant stomach, a condition of which she had made them aware,” he added. “Throughout this time and for the remainder of the video, roughly five individuals were telling her to get off the bike and heckling her.”

“The fact anyone would treat another person like this is tragic, especially a visibly pregnant woman,” he said.

She then had to take out a second bike to be able to get home, the attorney said. He also showed that receipt. “Everyone who’s accused her of a crime of stealing the bike — it’s outrageous, and it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

But even after the facts came out, you still have media like NBC falsely reporting the story.

A New York City hospital employee has been placed on leave after a viral video that appeared to show her attempting to take a rental bike from a group of young Black men garnered millions of views. https://t.co/8UryiG4qCr

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 19, 2023

Notice that Community Notes nailed them, saying this information was already known at the time they tweeted. Community Notes was doing a valiant job trying to clarify the story for everyone.

Her attorney said that they weren’t going to take this lying down and he was going to hold the media to account for their part in all this.

"She's been called a racist. She's been called a thief. There are reasons defamation laws exist, and we plan to pursue that."

Lawyer for woman at the center of viral Citi Bike video is planning to sue the media. pic.twitter.com/ZLUB8ehKwx

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 19, 2023

“She’s been called a racist. She’s been called a thief. There are reasons defamation laws exist, and we plan to pursue that,” Marino declared. There are certainly a lot of people who piled on here that he could look into.

Marino also said, “I’m hoping the employer will not violate her rights and will do what’s right and bring her back at some point.” But presumably, if they don’t, he’s going to pursue that as well.

We saw how mania and media worked in the case of the Covington kids, where there’s a dogpile to get someone because it fits the political beliefs of the media. It’s shameful that people fall on people in stories like this when they don’t know the facts and try to ruin others. And yes, usually they aren’t held to account. But it sounds like this time, just like with Covington kid Nick Sandmann, they just might be.