Lee R, PaymoneyWubby, and Putting it All Out There on Google Reviews
Welcome to the internet, where it only gets weirder day by day.
Let’s cut right to the chase. If you’re on this page, chances are you somewhat already know the story, but here’s your Cliff’s Notes version:
Popular YouTuber and Twitch Streamer PaymoneyWubby (pictured centrally above), released a video on April 16th, 2022, in which he detailed the various methods and the great lengths he went to in order to identify the content of a certain picture of so-called kebab, slightly censored below (and above):
If you want to see the real deal, just search #Turdkebab, and you won’t have to hunt for long. In case it wasn’t clear, it’s a picture of takeout food, that looks very much like a nasty ol’ piece of legitimate human crap, served over vegetables and pita.
Wubby, being a jokester of sorts, exhausted a variety of avenues in attempting to identify the image or find the originator. This included consulting both a real doctor and a kabob restauranteur, neither of which definitively identified the object.
But one early source of the image was a Google review from Lee R. Unfortunately, Google reviewers can’t interact as freely as Yelpers. There’s no chatting, nothing more than the option to either report a review or mark it as helpful. The only way to track down Lee R was to use his other reviews.
And that’s exactly what Wubby has done. Or tried to do.
He ends his video with a call to action. Asking the community of viewers to find Lee R, to find the source of the image, to find an answer, somewhere, anywhere. And the viewers have listened.
We have talked before - both on the podcast and here on the blog - that the reviews you leave online are another form of social media, but since the interface is so different, you might not even recognize that you’re divulging information about yourself.
Case in point is this Lee R.
We know he lives in Blackpool, that he’s a gamer, that he has kids (one being a son), and that he is fairly active, reviewing skate parks and shops, and a disc golf course, and that he has the money to take his family out, to waterparks and aquariums.
This may not be a Timiko Pollard situation, where someone is willingly (and strangely), putting a lot of personal information online:
But even if Lee isn’t as forthcoming with his personal information, the Reddit bloodhounds are on his trail, and those on Google Maps are shaking things up as well:
Lee still remains an unknown at this point, but for how long? How can you disappear when you’ve left such a mark?
While we appreciate the hunt and love the entertainment value gained, this also serves as a cautionary tale. You never know you might find your review and what it might create. Even if it’s a fake photo of a doodoo dog, you might just find yourself painted as person of interest No. 1.
