What happened to hitchBOT? No answers, only speculation.

The search for whoever assaulted hitchBOT over the weekend, tearing the little globe-trotting robot limb from limb, took a dark turn Tuesday on social media, where speculation grew that video of the attack may have been a prank - and, late in the day, two pranksters appeared to say as much.

Typical of the prevailing sentiment was this post from Metro Philly: "The surveillance vid of #hitchBOT's demise was just a crude ploy by 2 local funnymen to further their own fame."

The main focus of the posts was Jesse Wellens, who early Saturday tweeted a picture showing the bot in the backseat of a car, and later that night chastised the city for the attack on hitchBOT. By then, a photo showing a dismembered hitchBOT had made the rounds online.

But the mystery as to what happened grew exponentially Monday afternoon, when Wellens posted on his social media platforms a video of what he said was surveillance footage showing Second Street at Elfreth's Alley, where he said he left hitchBOT about 5 a.m. Saturday. The video shows a man in a No. 12 Eagles jersey kicking at something on a bench that appears to be the robot. Its limbs are on the pavement. The time stamp on the video is 5:45 a.m.

On social media, speculation the video was staged began Monday night. Wellens denied the video was staged, but offered no word on how, where, or from whom he got it.

Wellens, a YouTube sensation who runs a video channel, "Prank vs. Prank," did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

But late Tuesday, in two videos posted on YouTube, Wellens and collaborator Ed Bassmaster acknowledged that the surveillance video was a prank.

Both videos show the surveillance recording was staged. Bassmaster, who uses the alias Always Teste, can be seen removing the purported surveillance camera from a sign post, and showing fake robot arms and a mobile phone emitting light.

"Just to be clear we did not destroy the Robot," reads a statement accompanying the Bassmaster video. "We just wanted to Prank the News to think 'Teste' did it. HitchBot is a really cool project. Please support the creators by following their twitter and Facebook."

"We didn't kill the robot," Wellens said in a related video on the "Prank vs. Prank" channel. "We don't know who did it." That video warns, "Don't always trust the news!"

The Canadian researchers who made hitchBOT, David Harris Smith and Frauke Zeller, were not talking Tuesday. A spokeswoman said Tuesday they would not be available for comment. The hitchBOT website, m.hitchbot.me, said more information would be available on the site Wednesday.

On Monday, Smith and Zeller confirmed that the robot was on its way back to Port Credit, Ontario. They said that they had no plans to file a police report. Without a formal report, police cannot conduct a criminal investigation.

Inquirer staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.