⚠️This fact has been debunked
No evidence exists for this law in Brewton (or 'Breton') Alabama. The town name is misspelled, and no official municipal records support this claim. This appears to be an urban legend about weird local laws.
A popular internet legend claims that Brewton, Alabama has a law against riding motorboats down the street, but no such ordinance exists in the town's municipal code.
The Brewton Motorboat Myth: Alabama's Fake Law
If you've scrolled through "weird laws" listicles online, you might've encountered this head-scratcher: "In Breton, Alabama, it's illegal to ride a motorboat down the street." It sounds absurdly specific, perfectly quotable, and totally real. There's just one problem—it's not.
First red flag: there is no "Breton, Alabama." The town is actually Brewton (B-R-E-W-T-O-N), a city of about 5,200 people in Escambia County near the Florida border. Simple misspelling, right? Except that's usually how these fake laws start—with a garbled detail that nobody bothers to fact-check.
The Search for the Phantom Ordinance
Brewton's complete municipal code is publicly available online through Municode. It covers everything from alcohol sales to traffic regulations to public nuisances. There is no mention of motorboats, street-riding watercraft, or anything remotely similar.
Neither the Brewton Police Department, city clerk's office, nor Alabama state boating regulations make any reference to this supposed law. Because it doesn't exist.
How Fake Laws Go Viral
So where did this come from? Probably the same place as "it's illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket in Kentucky" or "you can't whistle underwater in Vermont"—the murky world of recycled internet content.
These "weird law" lists have been copy-pasted across blogs, social media, and trivia sites for decades. Most don't cite sources. Many include the same suspicious laws. And almost none bother to verify them with actual municipal codes.
- Someone invents or mishears a law
- It gets published on a clickbait list
- Other sites copy it without checking
- Eventually it's cited so often it feels true
The Anatomy of a Believable Fake
What makes the Brewton motorboat law so convincing? It follows the template of genuinely weird ordinances that do exist—like Mobile, Alabama's ban on throwing confetti, or Montgomery's prohibition on opening umbrellas on streets (originally meant to avoid spooking horses).
These real laws are relics from different eras, often never officially repealed. They sound ridiculous now, which makes them perfect viral content. Fake laws exploit that same quirky appeal while hoping nobody actually checks the records.
The takeaway? If a law sounds too weird to be true, it probably is. But the story of how we believe it? That's the real fun fact.