VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Windows Atop the Strat Shattered on Cue for TikTok

• A video posted to TikTok last month purported to show one of the windows at the top of the Strat cracking
• A Strat spokesperson confirmed the crack occurred before the video was taken, and that hotel had already confirmed it did not pose a safety concern
• The TikTok account that posted the video has since been scrubbed of all of its content 

Once again, social media has proven to be Las Vegas misinformation’s best friend. Last week, a TikTok video achieved brief virality for claiming to catch glass in the act of cracking in a window pane 855 feet atop the Strat.

The 29-second clip was posted by @henrylujan23, an account with fewer than 693 followers, on June 23. By July 3, it had “earned” more than 3 million views, 300K likes, and over 33K shares.

The video began with a male narrator displaying the view from one of the casino resort’s observation deck windows.

A thumping sound was then heard.

“Oh, hey, what was that, dude?” the narrator asked.

“I don’t know,” his companion answered.

“Look, look, look, it cracked!” the narrator yelled, directing the person’s attention to a crack that suddenly moved into frame.

Next, he addressed his TikTok followers.

“We’re on top of the Stratosphere and the window is cracking,” the man announced. “I have no idea what’s going on, earthquake or what, but it’s cracking. Craa-zy.

“I think we should go down now.”

Among the 5,000 comments left below the clip were:

• “One thing I’ve learned from the Titan submarine documentary is if I hear cracking, I am out!!” –@DG523
• “I feel like they’re gonna use this in the future documentary about the inevitable structural failure of the stratosphere.” –@jujujules619
• “I was just in Vegas and had the opportunity to do the strat and I had absolutely no interest in doing it because it doesn’t even look safe okay.” –@Wheels

The TikTok account @henrylujan23 has since been scrubbed of the video and all its other content.

TikTok’s policy is to remove only specific videos that spread harmful falsehoods in violation of its misinformation guidelines. It can and does close accounts for multiple offenses, but it is not known to scrub accounts of their content and then leave them still active.

The same video was uploaded to YouTube on June 28, where it generated more than 1,000 views for @henrylujanjr, an account with only one subscriber. That entire channel was deleted by its user on the morning of July 7, after Casino.org embedded it into an earlier version of this story.

Pane in the Ass

What really happened in the video was revealed by a casino surveillance worker authorized by the Strat to speak to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

William Liggett said he witnessed a man and three women shooting the video on June 27, after rehearsing it more than once.

According to Liggett, the narrator showed one of the women “how to strike the metal beam adjacent to the window with her hand” to produce the window-cracking sound.

A spokesperson for the Golden Entertainment property clarified to the newspaper that the window crack shown in the clip was pre-existing, “had already been evaluated, and was determined not to pose any safety concern.”

“The STRAT tower’s windows are quadruple-paned and subject to thorough daily inspections as part of a rigorous safety and maintenance program,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

It seems to us that the bottom line of a casino corporation should not be so vulnerable to lies crafted by liars, but this is the misinformation age in which we live.

This was a fine prank to play on a little kid you’re trying to scare in the moment, followed quickly by the “only kidding” required by human decency. But posting it to social media just for clicks makes you a serious a-hole.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.