Karin Snipe

About

Karin Snipe refers to a Grand Theft Auto V hoax and troll that involves players trying to convince others of the existence of an exceptionally rare car in the game named the "Karin Snipe." Spawned on a Grand Theft Auto forum in late 2013, the hoax saw spread in the community in late 2013 and 2014 and has been occasionally referenced since.

Origin

Karin Snipe is purportedly named after "snipe hunt," a type of practical joke that existed in North America since the mid-1800s. The joke involves duping an unsuspecting victim into trying to catch a nonexistent animal called a snipe, with the pranksters leaving the victim in the dark and having them make animal noises to attract this snipe. Karin is a brand of cars in the Grand Theft Auto universe.

On November 30th, 2013, GTA Forums user WBaker wrote^[1] in a thread about rarest cars in Grand Theft Auto V that the rarest car in the game was Karin Snipe, a vehicle that had no regular spawn but could be encountered randomly on rare occasions. In a follow-up post,^[2] WBaker clarified that the car was so rare that it was not mentioned on the game's wiki and that data about it was encrypted in the game files (posts shown below).

Spread

In early December 2013, user WBaker made more posts^[3][4] spreading the hoax on the forum. On December 1st, 2023, GTA Forums user Mr Tiddler made a post^[5] inquiring about the car and asking others to post pictures of it (shown below, left). On December 3rd, 2013, user AlienTwo wrote^[6] about seeing the car in the game (post shown below, right).

The hoax saw further spread on the GTA Forums in December 2013, with some users sharing fake images of the car (example shown below). In 2014, the hoax saw further spread online, with inquiries about the car appearing on Reddit and other sites.

On July 22nd, 2022, YouTuber^[7] InControlAgain posted a video titled "30 Minutes of Useless Information about GTA V," which mentioned the Karin Snipe hoax. The video (shown below, left; 2:38 mark) garnered over 4.8 million views in two years and revitalized public interest in the hoax, with posts about Karin Snipe appearing on Reddit.

On August 5th, 2023, YouTuber and TikToker Syrup made a video about the hoax that garnered over 7.7 million views on YouTube^[8] and 217,000 likes on TikTok^[9] in 10 months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References