Ever heard or read a story that makes you go "Hmm..."? I've heard them called FOAF (Friend of a Friend) tales or, more commonly perhaps, Urban Myths
(or even 'Urban Legends' if you live Stateside. :o) ) Urban Myths are stories that can be eerily believable when you first hear them - many of them are very convincing *especially* if they're told by someone who believes them to be true - but they can all start to get a little tired as you hear them more and more often. :o) Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin... :o)
Contents:
Sources: Urban Myths
Disclaimer: Obviously, although I believe these stories *not* to be true, some of you may have already heard them and be *convinced* of their validity. (Please don't email me or anything to tell me how true they are. :o) )
Lonely Lane
A New Pet
Hell's Angels
Thanksgiving Dinner
Dying to Clean
The Cupholder
A friend of a friend was driving down a lonely lane one night on her way back from working late. She never really enjoyed the journey home, especially now that it was winter. As she rounded a bend she saw a the body of man lying next to the road. There was no one else around so she knew that she had to pull over to see if she could help. She got out of the car, but as she got closer to the body she could see that
it was only a mannequin that someone had left lying there. As she got back into her car and began to pull away she noticed that a second car had come around the bend behind her. The second driver was flashing his lights and sounding the horn and continued to do so all the way down the rest of the lane and into the town where the woman lived. She began to get scared as she realised that she wasn't getting rid of the driver behind her and he was following her back to her house. When she reached her house she was relieved to see that her husband had left the garage door open for her as he usually did. She drove into the
garage and parked her car. As she entered her house she heard the doorbell ring and called her husband to answer it because she was afraid that it might be the driver of the car that had followed her home. Her husband called her to the door and it *was* the driver of the car that had been following her. "I wasn't following you to scare you," he said, "As I came around the bend towards you I saw a man sneak into the back of your car before you got back in to drive away."
A friend of a friend and his family were on their holiday in Thailand when they came across a scruffy looking cat. It had obviously been abandoned, or wandered away from home so they decided to tidy it up and feed it. After a while, it became normal for them to see the cat and they were growing
so fond of it that they decided to arrange to take it home with them. They arrived home from the airport and on the way home they picked up their miniature poodle from the kennels where they had left him for the duration of their holiday. When they got home they left all of their luggage and both pets and went out for dinner. On their return to unpack and get themselves sorted they entered their living room and find it *covered* in poodle hair. Sitting in the middle of the room is their new pet, with their poodle halfway down its throat. The cat that the family
brought home with them turned out not to be a cat, but a huge Thai water rat.>
A friend of a friend of a friend went on Holiday in Spain with his family by car and caravan. When they finally found a camp site that wasn't completely full, they found that they had come to set up camp right next to a group of Hell's Angels. Of course they were horrified that this should happen, and they complained bitterly to the management who was not inclined to send his customers away. There was no room anywhere else so they stayed in their caravan every time the Angels were there, suspiciously looking out. This was noticed by the Hell's Angels, and when the manager told them to tone it down they knew where it came from.
One day, when the family of this friend returned from a day trip to a village they saw some of the Hell's Angels scurrying out of their caravan howling with laughter. They did not appear to be carrying anything that belonged to the family. The family rushed to their caravan only to find that really nothing had seemed to have been disturbed or taken. They were a bit worried but decided to carry on with their holiday because there were
only a few days left. When they got home and they developed their Holiday pictures they found photos of the laughing hell's angels posing in their caravan with the families toothbrushes up their behinds.
A friend of a friend was about to host her first Thanksgiving for her family,
so she wanted to cook something special. She slaved for hours and finally created a masterpiece. Salmon mousse. Just before her guests arrived, she caught her cat nibbling away at the dish on the dining room table. She had worked so hard that she couldn't throw the mousse away, so she smoothed it over and served it anyway. Well, the mousse was a hit. Everyone took seconds or thirds. Proudly she stood to bring the empty plate out to the kitchen and looked out the window. There, next to the house, lay her cat. Dead. She had to confess to her guests that she'd served
mousse eaten by the cat and now the cat was dead. The entire family rushed to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped. The housewife, who hadn't eaten any because she knew her cat had, lay in bed - mourning the passing of her cat and fearing that the same fate could befall her guests. Then, the phone rang. It was her next door neighbour who said, "I'm sorry about your cat. I should have told you that I ran her over but I was just so ashamed and saw that you were eating dinner... so I just put her on your lawn."
A friend of a friend who works in a hospital in South Africa was able to relate this strange event. For six weeks, every Friday evening, somebody died in the Intensive Care unit. Nothing special. But here, every week the death of a patient happened every Friday around the same time, and every time the victim was the person that was closest to the door. The
solution for the mystery came when the nurses on the Intensive Care discovered that every Friday night, the floor of the IC was polished. To get electricity for her polish machine, the cleaning woman turned of the electricity for the artificial respiration machine. Because of the noise the machine made, the woman never heard the alarm bells and the death-struggle of the patient.
The woman said she turned of the respiration machine because there was no other free outlet.
I know this one isn't a *typical* urban myth, but I think that it's funny, so I'm going to include it. I don't know how true it really is, though.
A service desk for computer users in England once received the following phone call:
Customer: Hello, can you help me. The cupholder of my computer broke off.
Operator: Did you say cupholder?
Customer: Yes, it's on the front of my computer. It's to put a mug or a cup on. It broke off.
Operator: Was that cupholder on your computer when you bought it or did you buy it later?
Customer: No. It was on my computer when I bought it. The name on it is 4X.
At this point the service desk operator begins to laugh. He has realised that the man has been using his CD-ROM player to sit his drinks in/on.
Urban Legends at America Online
Urban Legends
