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Modern Urban Legends?

I don't have access to any of my Fortean Times back-issues, but didn't a contributor claim he was in a Pub and overheard four blokes on the next table actually plan an urban legend ? It was about some-one claiming alien abduction when he was asleep, but no-one believed him. Then the mobile phone company (there is only one) released records showing that his phone connected with a transmitter mast at 02:03 and with a second mast at 02:08 and then a third and finally a fourth mast shortly after. Triangulation showed that his phone signal could only have been picked up by the four masts (line of sight) if it had been travelling 260 miles straight up. Don't think the UL caught on but I haven't check Wiki.
 
No doubt this will lead to copycat actions and/or fake claims.

A town in North Carolina is being threatened by dangerously placed razor blades — not in apples, but in gas stations.

At least three random razor blades have been found on gas pump handles within the last month, prompting Forest City police — who are actively investigating — to put out an advisory on Tuesday, warning residents to "be aware of your surroundings while pumping gas" and "always check before grabbing the gas pump handle."

From CNN:

The department published the community advisory on Tuesday to address "multiple instances of razor blades being placed in gas pump handles in Forest City and surrounding areas." It said that they are "actively investigating" the incidents in cooperation with the state Department of Agriculture.
"This is a very disturbing incident and we are devoting all of the resources available to us to figure out who is responsible and hold them accountable," the department wrote in its statement.
Forest City is located in North Carolina's Rutherford County, in the southwest of the state, around 63 miles from Asheville.
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https://boingboing.net/2023/01/26/n...e-razor-blades-found-on-gas-pump-handles.html
 
ramonmercado said:
No doubt this will lead to copycat actions and/or fake claims.

A town in North Carolina is being threatened by dangerously placed razor blades — not in apples, but in gas stations.

At least three random razor blades have been found on gas pump handles within the last month, prompting Forest City police — who are actively investigating — to put out an advisory on Tuesday, warning residents to "be aware of your surroundings while pumping gas" and "always check before grabbing the gas pump handle."

From CNN:



https://boingboing.net/2023/01/26/n...e-razor-blades-found-on-gas-pump-handles.html
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What group of people would be most likely to do such a thing?
 
I have heard/read (as in people sharing warning emails) the stranger in back seat of car UL. The warning was regarding White Oaks Mall in London Ontario, so kind of near me.

I have tried to recollect the exact details, but can't remember as I immediately recognized it as an urban legend. If you paid attention to the details of the story, it made no sense. Something about a woman trying to get something into her car trunk (boot) and a male stranger assisting. She then drives to a gas station and is told by an attendant that there is a man in her back seat.

There was some detail that made it unbelievable. Damned if I can remember because it was stupidly obvious and I deleted the email. Most people tend to react to a supposed threat without really paying attention to details.
 
Anome said:
No, but I only have your word for that. I've had people repeat similar urban legends and other old stories as if they happened to them, and I know they were lying. And those were people I could see. I don't even know if you have a wife, let alone whether she's a police officer.

I've also seen stories go from "friend of a friend" to "friend" to "I definitely saw it myself" as they got repeated. I've seen stories change from actual events to something else. I've even inadvertently done so myself, and only found out later.

What you are giving me is anecdotal evidence that this happened. Anecdotal evidence isn't worth the paper it's written on. Without at least a secondary source - say the police reports about the incident - there isn't really much for the rest of us to go on.
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So what if he (Maximus) had said the story had happened to him and not his wife? Would you have taken his word for it then?
Seeing as most of us on here don't 'know' each other, then you're saying that it's pointless posting any experiences we have as they can't be verified?
 
One I would really like to be true was the guy who worked on a carpark at a zoo taking money from the coaches and cars. One day after many years of never missing work, he didn't turn up. No one knew where the guy lived, so in the end they phoned the council and asked them to send a replacement. The council informed them that they didn't supply personel, only the ticket machine.
 
Floyd1 said:
One I would really like to be true was the guy who worked on a carpark at a zoo taking money from the coaches and cars. One day after many years of never missing work, he didn't turn up. No one knew where the guy lived, so in the end they phoned the council and asked them to send a replacement. The council informed them that they didn't supply personel, only the ticket machine.
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This one came up in conversation a couple of years ago, not at a zoo but a non-specified carpark in London. It was told by my old boss who probably didn't know what an UL was.
 
Floyd1 said:
One I would really like to be true was the guy who worked on a carpark at a zoo taking money from the coaches and cars. One day after many years of never missing work, he didn't turn up. No one knew where the guy lived, so in the end they phoned the council and asked them to send a replacement. The council informed them that they didn't supply personel, only the ticket machine.
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This is essentially true. It happened at Bristol Zoo.
Customers were tipping unpaid attendants for parking on a nearby field.

IS THERE TRUTH BEHIND THE BRISTOL ZOO PARKING ATTENDANT MYTH?


“The failure to provide properly for zoo visitors arriving by car goes back a century, to the 1920s,” says Susan Carter, a member of Downs for People. “For almost 30 years, from 1958 until the mid-1980s, and quite likely for 30 years before that, people were able to make their living as parking attendants, collecting ‘voluntary’ donations from motorists parking on rough ground outside the zoo.”

But the group has found a name: Mr S W Barrett of 35 Westbury Lane, who supervised parking from 1978, issued tickets at the zoo’s car park. He introduced his own tickets, which included the words “unpaid attendant “.

The Downs Committee must have realised this was a way of encouraging tips, as the Committee’s minutes explain, ” it is understood that the motorist is never asked to make a donation.”
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Heard a conversation in a shop today.

Woman behind counter: When I lived in Ireland, someone found a microchip in their curry.
Customer: Like from a computer?
Woman behind counter: From a dog. The owner was traced. It was an Alsatian that had been reported missing.
Customer: :dunno:

This is new spin on an old UL about pets being stolen and slaughtered by foreign food shop owners.
A version I read as a teenager was that when a certain Chinese takeaway was raided, an Alsatian dog's head was found on a plate in a fridge.

Yup, it's always that breed. As if a big fierce dog like that would be easy to steal. :chuckle:
 
escargot said:
A version I read as a teenager was that when a certain Chinese takeaway was raided, an Alsatian dog's head was found on a plate in a fridge.
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The variant, which I heard, more than once, was that a burglar had broken-in and was soooo disgusted that he handed himself in and became a witness . . .

Not a story which is easy to pin down! :roll:
 
escargot said:
Heard a conversation in a shop today.

Woman behind counter: When I lived in Ireland, someone found a microchip in their curry.
Customer: Like from a computer?
Woman behind counter: From a dog. The owner was traced. It was an Alsatian that had been reported missing.
Customer: :dunno:

This is new spin on an old UL about pets being stolen and slaughtered by foreign food shop owners.
A version I read as a teenager was that when a certain Chinese takeaway was raided, an Alsatian dog's head was found on a plate in a fridge.

Yup, it's always that breed. As if a big fierce dog like that would be easy to steal. :chuckle:
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We have a running joke in a similar vein to this because in our town we have (in sequence) a vet, a butcher and the local Chinese restaurant.
 
I'm always disappointed by these "rumours". Just low-key racist narrative.
"I heard it from so-and-so so it must be true."
We've three Chinese takeaways in town, one - opposite my local pub - is really highly and rightfully praised by it's quality. Locals make this 'joke' periodically that says there's been local cats going missing (not true) and their food's not as good any more.
You'll notice these 'jokes' are always said in places where said ethnic worker doesn't often go. Sensitivity, eh?

Besides, an animal's microchip is about as small as a grain of rice. If it was in a curry, it's unlikely to be noticed.
 
Stormkhan said:
I'm always disappointed by these "rumours". Just low-key racist narrative.
"I heard it from so-and-so so it must be true."
We've three Chinese takeaways in town, one - opposite my local pub - is really highly and rightfully praised by it's quality. Locals make this 'joke' periodically that says there's been local cats going missing (not true) and their food's not as good any more.
You'll notice these 'jokes' are always said in places where said ethnic worker doesn't often go. Sensitivity, eh?

Besides, an animal's microchip is about as small as a grain of rice. If it was in a curry, it's unlikely to be noticed.
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Well yup, we know all that. My point was that there's a new variation of the 'evidence' for the cat/dog curry.
All urban legends keep up with and incorporate new technology. It's how they keep going.
 
If you dropped your smartphone in the bath, swimming pool, toilet etc. rumour had it that the best folk remedy to dry it out was to insert your soggy Samsung, irrigated I-Phone or humid Huawei into a bag of uncooked rice.
Nope!
That will only make matters worse by clogging up the interior with tiny food particles.
Here's the definitive guide as to what you should really do:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/20/wet-iphone-in-rice-what-to-do-instead
 
In the late '70s, a big employer in the Amersham area was the Bowyers Meat Factory. As a school-leaver I was helping to install a new cold-room and noticed a gallery next to the Refectory. This was a display of the actual items found in meat pies returned as Customer complaints. The usual bits of bones/hooves etc - I could swear blind there was a wedding ring on the board.
But there wasn't.
 
Bad Bungle said:
In the late '70s, a big employer in the Amersham area was the Bowyers Meat Factory. As a school-leaver I was helping to install a new cold-room and noticed a gallery next to the Refectory. This was a display of the actual items found in meat pies returned as Customer complaints. The usual bits of bones/hooves etc - I could swear blind there was a wedding ring on the board.
But there wasn't.
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How d'you mean, you thought it was there but it wasn't?
 
Nah, I could have said I saw a wedding ring retrieved from a finger in a pie - but very difficult to start a UL before Internet and social forums (1979) and my mates were too intelligent for that kind of BS.
 
When I was a student, word got around that to obtain a hamper of tinned goodies, sufficient to stave-off hunger till the end of term, all you had to do was find a toe-nail in a pie and return it to the manufacturer for comment.

I did not need to prise off a precious toe-nail, suspecting that those pie-making, capitalist lackies were onto such trickery. So, the day I found an authentic rock-hard chunk of pastry in my pie felt like pay-day! I enclosed it with a polite letter.

What came back was not in a hamper. Just a curt note that thanked me for pointing out a slight irregularity in the mix. Others, who tried the ruse from a hall-of-residence got a print-out of complaints previously received from that address, under a variety of pseudonyms!

I resolved to eat healthily, for the remainder of term. :(
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
When I was a student, word got around that to obtain a hamper of tinned goodies, sufficient to stave of hunger till the end of semester, all you had to do was find a toe-nail in a pie and return it to the manufacturer for comment.

I did not need to prise off a precious toe-nail; I already suspected that those pie-making, capitalist lackies were onto such trickery. So, the day I found an authentic rock-hard chunk of pastry in my pie felt like pay-day! I enclosed it with the letter.

What came back was not in a hamper. Just a curt note that thanked me for pointing out a slight irregularity in the mix. Others, who tried the ruse from a hall-of-residence got a print-out of complaints previously received from that address, under a variety of pseudonyms!

I resolved to eat healthily, for the remainder of term. :(
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The last time I bothered complaining to a manufacturer was the last time I bought Tesco battered fish fillets years ago. The picture looked OK on the box with flaky-looking fish. The reality was they were a mashed up mush of fish bits reconstructed into a fishy shape.

They were so horrible I binned them after one mouthful. On complaining to Tesco they replied that they were very sorry I didn’t enjoy them. No vouchers or even money-back offer.

It was a lesson - I’ve avoided Tesco ready meals ever since.
 
I once counted the teabags in the box to find there was one short.
I emailed whoever it was and they said that the box was done on weight so that could be the reason why, but they still sent me a new box of them.

It makes me wonder how often it happens though. Like the company that removed one olive from each aeroplane meal and thereby saved millions.

I mean who is really going to count things like matches or toothpicks?
 
Floyd1 said:
I once counted the teabags in the box to find there was one short.
I emailed whoever it was and they said that the box was done on weight so that could be the reason why, but they still sent me a new box of them.

It makes me wonder how often it happens though. Like the company that removed one olive from each aeroplane meal and thereby saved millions.

I mean who is really going to count things like matches or toothpicks?
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Me. Well, I always check receipts and count slices of cheese or whatever in a pack.
 
Floyd1 said:
I emailed whoever it was and they said that the box was done on weight so that could be the reason why, but they still sent me a new box of them.
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Someone I knew, a respectable married man, bought a box of 12 condoms from the chemist. There were only 11 because one of the individual wrappers was empty.
He sent the packaging and the empty wrapper back to Durex with a polite note and received a grovelling letter almost by return of post, together with another 12-pack.

(Incidentally, I wonder why people still buy condoms as they are available free with no questions asked from the NHS.)
 
escargot said:
Yeah, we all know he's a MASSIVE one. :wink2:
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You can get free condoms from family planning clinics and outreach places, such as our Gay Village but, unless the rules have been changed you can't get a free prescription for them from your GP.
 
frankiefelix said:
You can get free condoms from family planning clinics and outreach places, such as our Gay Village but, unless the rules have been changed you can't get a free prescription for them from your GP.
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Not a problem when nobody can get an appointment! :dunno:
They don't need a prescription.

You and I are both old enough to remember when contraception was made free through the NHS. :nods:
April 1974. I was still at school.
 
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