I worked as a part-time postman. This way earned some money and got needed walks. Also, got to meat some wonderful people along the way. Once my online venture started earning enough money I went back staring at the screen full time.
They actually didnt verify anything. Plenty of Twitter accounts verified the story some 10-ish hours before NYT reported this ground breaking information. These reporters are sitting behind their desks (like you and me) and are sifting through Twitter feed and they stumbled upon what was already geolocated video+ several images of missiles. But this became a story only when a big media (in this case NYT) published it.