The Internet Remembers a Robber Emoji, but Apparently It Never Existed
By Gina VaynshteynJun. 16 2020, Updated 10:09 p.m. ET
Remember the robber emoji? It wore a striped black and white shirt and held a brown bag that had the money sign on it? Okay, so here’s the weird thing: Apparently it never existed, even though everyone on the internet swears that not only do they remember it, but they’ve totally used it before. Wild, right?!
What happened to the robber emoji?
According to every source we’ve looked into, it appears that the robber emoji just never existed in any shape or form. In this Reddit thread posted five days ago, the OP wrote, “I can swear there was a robber emoji. It had like a grey beanie, a beard and wore a black and white striped shirt.” The post has 144 comments, almost all of which also claim that there *definitely* used to be a robber emoji. But why can’t we find any proof of its existence?
One Reddit user claims that maybe what we’re all remembering is the custom-made graphics in the app Bitlife, which included a robber: “there were custom made graphics in the app “bitlife,” including the robber, so you probably saw one while playing/watching the game, or seeing one of the mobile ads they used to constantly play on other apps and games.”
Another mystery? Apparently there used to be a hiker emoji, and nobody is able to find that one either!
Twitter is currently trying to crack the case of the missing robber (and hiker) emoji.
Mostly, Twitter users are drawing what they remember. Interestingly enough, everyone seems to remember the same emojis. It’s possible that as soon as one person saw someone else’s sketch, they clung on to that image — but still. With this many people remembering the elusive emojis to exist, it’s strange to think they could have just evaporated from the digital atmosphere.
After scouring the Apple emoji evolution from 1997 to 2018, we couldn’t find the robber emoji anywhere. Could it have just not existed? Or was it quietly deleted without a trace, for seemingly no reason? (Except maybe for the reason of not glorifying being a robber, but come on.)
Sorry, folks. Looks like that’s as far as we’ll get for now. Unless Anonymous wants to get involved.
