Bob Geldof: "Give us your fucking money"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/12/27/the-urban-myth-of-sir-bob-geldof-s-legendary-live-aid-outburst-115875-22809066/

The Daily Mirror [UK]
27 December 2010

The urban myth of Sir Bob Geldof's legendary Live Aid outburst

by David Hepworth, Daily Mirror

ON July 13, 1985 I was at Wembley Stadium working for the BBC as one of the presenters of its coverage of Live Aid. [...]

[Bob Geldof] climbed into our little studio and demanded to make an appeal. In a break between acts I sat next to him and talked him through it.

He made his case as to why people should put hands in their pockets to help the starving.

“Fine,” I said and then, because I knew what order the captions would come up in, I added to camera: “Here’s the address...”

“F*** the address,” interjected Geldof. “Go to the phone number!” [...]

In the years that followed I’ve been engaged in that same conversation all over the world. The people who are convinced that Geldof said “Give us your f***ing money” range from those who claim to have watched every second of the broadcast to people not even born at the time. [...]

Christmas Tree Vendor Legends

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/12/selling_christm.php#

The Village Voice [NY]
23 December 2010

Tales From a Greenpoint Christmas Tree Vendor

By Jen Doll

[...] Stories tend to accumulate over the years, told from vendor to vendor, some of them real, some of them with the trappings of urban legend. "There's one I heard from a tree guy," [tree vendor Charlie Poekel] said. "Someone new was selling trees late one night. A good-looking girl came around, talked to him for 30 minutes or so, got him to sneak away, and gave him head in a nearby alley. When he came back, the story goes, every tree was gone."

In another tale, "This woman sold a tree to a drunk guy three nights in a row. The first two nights the tree apparently didn't make it home." [...]

Keith Richards

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 209.

There was the thing of course of Marianne. Hard day on acid, she had taken a bath upstairs, just finished, and I had this huge fur rug, made of pelts of some kind, rabbit, and she just wrapped herself up in that. I think she had a towel around her too and was lying back on the couch after a nice bath. How the Mars bar got into the story I don't know. There was one on the table -- there were a couple, because on acid suddenly you get sugar lack and you're munching away. And so she's stuck forever with the story of where the police found that Mars bar. And you have to say she wears it well. But how that connotation came about and how the press managed to make a Mars bar on a table and Marianne wrapped in a fur rug into a myth is a kind of classic. In fact, Marianne was quite chastely attired for once. Usually when first you said hi to Marianne you started talking to the cleavage. And she knew she was thrusting it. A naughty lady, bless her heart. She was more dressed in this fur bedspread than she'd been all day. So they had a woman police officer who took her upstairs and made her drop the rug. What else do you want to see? From there -- it shows you what's in people's minds -- the evening paper headlines are "Naked Girl at Stones Party." Info directly from the police. But the Mars bar as a dildo? That's rather a large leap. The weird thing about these myths is that they stick when they're so obviously false. Perhaps the idea is that it's so outlandish or crude or prurient that it can't have been invented.

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 546.

Bert had died in 2002, but his memory was revived a few weeks before Doris died in a big press story generated by a journalist reporting that I'd claimed to have snorted some of my father's ashes along with a line of bump. There were headlines, editorials, there were op-eds on cannibalism, there was some of the old flavor of Street of Shame indignation at the Stones. John Humphrys on prime-time radio was heard to ask, "Do you think Keith Richards has gone too far this time?" What did he mean this time? There were also articles saying this is a perfectly normal thing, it goes back to ancient times, the ingestion of your ancestor. So there were two schools of thought. Old pro that I am, I said it was taken out of context. No denying, no admitting. "The truth of the matter" -- to read my memo to [his manager] Jane Rose when the story threatened to get out of hand -- "is that after having Dad's ashes in a black box for six years, because I really couldn't bring myself to scatter him to the winds, I finally planted a sturdy English oak to spread him around. And as I took the lid off the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out onto the table. I couldn't just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue. Ashes to ashes, father to son. He is now growing oak trees and would love me for it."

Vanishing Genitals (Ghana)

http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201012/119661.php

Peace FM Online [Ghana]
22 December 2010

Man 'Jailed' Over Missing Penis

A Tamale Circuit Court has remanded 48-year-old Alex Ikege, a man suspected of making some persons’ genitals disappear, into police custody to re-appear on December 23, 2010. [...]

Attempted Abduction at Toledo Shopping Mall

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101215/NEWS16/101219594

Toledo Blade [OH]
15 December 2010

Police: Westfield Franklin Park abduction story untrue

BLADE STAFF

A persistent and startling story about the alleged attempted abduction of a young girl from the bathroom of a local shopping mall is untrue and has circulated widely through e-mail, authorities said Wednesday. [...]

The tall tale involves a teenage girl whose mother screamed to alert mall security when she saw the girl unresponsive and being carried out by two men from the food court bathroom at Westfield Franklin Park.

In most variations of the rumor, the girl's hair was disguised in some way by being shaved, dyed, or covered with a wig. [...]

Armenian Children Kidnapped, Organs Taken

http://armenianow.com/social/26472/yerevan_children_kidnapping_transplant_scare

ArmeniaNow
14 December 2010

Kidnapping scare: Armenian Police say abduction cases are case of urban myth

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Parents in Yerevan have been increasingly worried about their children’s safety in recent weeks as rumors have circulated that children have been abducted. [...]

Stories of horrific cases have circulated, usually including talk of “foreigners” coming into Armenia and kidnapping boys and girls to sell them for organ transplants. [...]

Roundabout Plan = Cup Stain on Blueprint

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/12/10/hignfy-telford-roundabout-jokes-ring-of-truth/

The Shropshire Star [UK]
10 December 2010

HIGNFY Telford roundabout joke’s ‘ring of truth’

Millions of TV viewers heard how rings left on a blueprint by a dirty coffee cup were supposedly mistaken by planners in Telford for proposed roundabouts.

The mark was said to have led to the myriad of islands being built, even though they had never featured in the architects’ minds.

The alleged stain on Telford’s character was aired last night on hit satirical panel show Have I Got News For You. It left the audience reeling with laughter. [...]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-11971965
BBC News
10 December 2010
Telford roundabout TV claim 'is urban myth'

Koro Outbreak (Nigeria)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/two-persons-lynched-over-%E2%80%98missing%E2%80%99-genitals-in-plateau/

The Vanguard [Nigeria]
7 December 2010

Two persons lynched over ‘missing’ genitals in Plateau

By Taye Obateru & Samuel Olaniran

At least two people have been lynched in Plateau State for being allegedly responsible for the disappearance of the genitals of other citizens in different parts of the state.

A man was stoned to death in Mikang Local Government Area while two others were set ablaze in Shendam Local Government Area of the state over the allegations. [...]

Shark Attacks an Israeli Plot

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/1343/Egypt/Politics-/Experts-shoot-down-theory-that-Israel-is-behind-sh.aspx

Ahram Online [Egypt]
6 December 2010

Expert shoots down conspiracy theory blaming Israel for shark attacks

Yasmine Fathi

A Sharm El Sheikh marine biologist slammed the conspiracy theory circulating around the country that last week's shark attacks off the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh were part of an Israeli conspiracy, but the South Sinai governor supports it. [...]

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=198286&R=R1

The Jerusalem Post
6 December 2010

Egypt: Sinai shark attacks could be Israeli plot

By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE

Israel rejects the notion as "too ludicrous" for comment; German woman killed near Sharm e-Sheikh, Russian tourists also mauled.

Egyptian officials say they have not ruled out the possibility that a fatal shark attack in Sinai on Sunday could have been a plot by the Mossad. [...]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6B52OE20101206

Reuters Africa
6 December 2010

Egypt puzzled after string of Red Sea shark attacks

By Mohamed Zaki

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) - Shark attacks on tourists in the Red Sea have triggered a flurry of speculation as to what could have caused them, with suggestions ranging from overfishing to an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism. [...]

Cholera Rumors (Haiti)

http://www.truth-out.org/how-rumors-rule-cholera-torn-haiti65656

Truthout

4 December 2010

How Rumors Rule in Cholera-Torn Haiti

by: Laura Wagner

[...] But the idea, however wrongheaded, that Haitians are particularly resistant because of their continuous exposure to unsanitary conditions, is now cited as proof that the emergence of cholera is something other than just a "germ," something outside the natural order, and something intentional.[...]

On November 16, a friend from the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Christ-Roi told me she'd heard that the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, had released a box of dead rats into the water in Cap Haitien with help of "the Americans." [...]

Jenkem (Fort Pierce, Florida)

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/wastedapt-111274134.html

NBC Miami
3 December 2010

Waste-Filled Apartment Causes a Stink
Fort Pierce building condemned after drug habit leads to disgusting mess

By SCOTT FITZGERALD

[...] When police opened the second floor unit, they found bottles and buckets of what appeared to be human waste. Many of the containers had been dumped out onto a mattress and the bedroom floor.

Officers believe the wasteful renter may have been huffing "Jenkem," a hallucinogenic drug made from the gas of fermented sewage. [...]

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_st_lucie_county/fort_pierce/smelly-house-forces-tenants-to-leave
WPTV-TV [West Palm Beach, FL]
3 December 2010
Smelly house forces tenants to leave
By: Carolyn Scofield

Cholera Caused by Powders (Haiti)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40482791/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

MSNBC
2 December 2010

Cholera panic sparks Haiti witch hunt; 12 killed

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Terror over a fast-spreading cholera epidemic has triggered a violent witch hunt in rural Haiti in which locals have murdered at least 12 neighbors on accusations they used "black magic" to infect people, police said Thursday. [...]

Rumors began to spread last week in the remote southwestern Grand Anse region, where the first cases of cholera are only now being seen, that Vodou practitioners had fashioned a magic powder to spread the infection. [...]

Cannibalism Scare (Sierra Leone)

http://www.awoko.org/2010/11/25/cannibalism-scare-grips-bo/

Awoko [Sierra Leone]
25 November 2010

Cannibalism scare grips Bo

By Easmon Moiguah

Parents and residents of Bo and its environs have for the past two weeks been in fear for the safety of their loved ones especially their children as rumours of cannibalism circulate around the township.

Play grounds were abandoned as children were kept indoors and parents had anxious moments waiting for their children to return home from school. So far there has not been a single case of cannibalism in the area. [...]

http://www.cocorioko.net/?p=4887

Cocorioko
26 November 2010

Ritual murder and Cannibalism scare hit SLPP strongholds, as Borfima Society and human baboons become active once again

[...] According to our Freetown-based reporters, the ritual murder and cannibalism scare have also been fuelled by reports of the sightings of human baboons who have been seen at night in some villages and towns. Human baboons are real human beings disguised in baboon skins and they specialize in capturing innocent people from whom they extract parts for ritual purposes while consuming their flesh. [...]

Dead Mobsters in Lake Tahoe

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/sunny-slopes-shady-stories-20101118-17yu2.html

Sydney Morning Herald
21 November 2010

Sunny slopes, shady stories

Craig Tansley discovers a most unusual ski resort, complete with legends of dead mobsters and thousands of slot machines.

BELOW this place they call Heavenly, hell awaits those who double-cross the Mob.

Around here, urban legend has lake fishermen reeling in human ears and human hands. They say that far below all that fluffy powder snow and those perfectly spaced pine trees and all that sunshine; and way down below the surface of the huge alpine lake the Indians call Lake of the Sky, lies an underwater wax museum of perfectly preserved Mafia gangsters with bullet holes in the middle of their foreheads. [...]

Janitor Unplugs Life Support System

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/wellness/wellness/view/20101123-304720/Urban-legends-die-hard

Philippine Daily Inquirer
23 November 2010

Inner Awareness
Urban legends die hard

By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer

I RECENTLY got a text message titled “Mystery at a Medical Center” from a well known ophthalmologist. The message read:

“ICU patients always died in the same bed on Sundays at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors. No one could solve the mystery. Mr. Licauco and the Ateneo paranormal folks were called. They arrived armed with special photographic equipment, infrared devices and motion sensitive radar to detect any presence, so on Sunday, a few minutes before 11 a.m., doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to know what the mystery was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses and prayer books to ward off evil spirits.

“When the clock struck 11, Mang Jose, a part-time Sunday janitor, entered the room, unplugged the life support system and plugged in the vacuum cleaner.” [...]

Gang Initiation: Murder at Broadway Mall

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-mall-hoax,0,2409495.story

WPIX-TV [NYC]
18 November 2010

No Murders Planned For Long Island Mall

Rob Hoell

HICKSVILLE, NY — Police say there is no credibility to a barrage of emails circulating in Nassau County of an impending MS-13 gang initiation where an innocent victim would be randomly singled out to be murdered at the Broadway Mall in Hicksville. [...]

Kool Mints Reduce Blood Alcohol Levels

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/jeff-kennet-advises-drink-drivers-to-eat-kool-mints/story-e6frf7kx-1225955860473

Herald Sun [Melbourne, Australia]
19 November 2010

Jeff Kennet advises drink drivers to eat Kool Mints

Felicity Williams

VICTORIA police have lashed out at Jeff Kennett after the former premier advised drink drivers to eat Kool Mints to reduce their blood alcohol content.

Speaking to radio station 3AW yesterday, Mr Kennett said that people who had been drinking should eat Kool Mints before getting behind the wheel.

"If you have had a couple of drinks and you want to absorb the alcohol quickly, Kool Mints will do it,'' he said. [...]

Handshake Used to Inject Drug

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/va_beach/ominous-e-mail-circulates-in-va.-beach

WAVY-TV [Portsmouth, VA]
9 November 2010

Ominous e-mail circulates in Va. Beach
Police said e-mail was an urban myth

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Hundreds of people received an exaggerated e-mail that circulated around Virginia Beach.

The e-mail stated that a man approached a Sandbridge woman at a gas station and asked her for gas money. She gave him a few dollars, but before she left, the man thanked her and squeezed her hand tightly. When he did that, the e-mail stated he injected her with something like a date rape drug. [...]

How to Beat a Breath-Alcohol Test

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/135405/slurring-falling-and-still-driving

Otago Daily Times [New Zealand]
9 November 2010

Slurring, falling and still driving

By Hamish McNeilly

[...] Asked what urban legends he had heard in connection with drink-driving tests, Dr [Allan] Stowell said he had heard of how didgeridoo players can "beat' a breath-alcohol test by drawing air through the nose at the same time as breathing through their mouths.

"If this is correct and they can satisfy the stringent airflow requirements of the breath-testing devices, which I doubt, they could significantly lower their breath-alcohol test results." [...]

Gas-Propelled Astronauts?

Mary Roach, Packing for Mars (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 305-6.

The zero-gravity fart has been a popular orbital pursuit, particularly on all-male flights. One hears tell of astronauts using intestinal gas like rocket propellant to "launch themselves across the middeck," as astronaut Roger Crouch puts it. He had heard the claims and was dubious. "The mass and velocity of the expelled gas," he told me in an email that has forever endeared him to me, "is very small compared to the mass of the human body." Thus it was unlikely that it could accelerate a 180-pound astronaut. Crouch pointed out that an exhaled breath doesn't propel an astronaut in any direction, and the lungs hold about six liters of air -- versus the fart, which, as we learned from Dr. Murphy, holds at most three soda cans' worth.

Or the average person's, anyway. "My genes have blessed me with an extraordinary ability to expel some of the byproducts of digestion," wrote Crouch. "So given that, I thought that it should be tested. In what I thought was a real voluminous and rapidly expelled purge, I failed to move noticeably." Crouch surmised that his experiment may have been compromised by the "action/reaction of the gas passing through the pants." Disappointingly, both his flights were mixed-gender, so Crouch was disinclined to "strip down naked" and try it again.

Tampered Treats (Halloween, 2010)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/parents-warned-of-pot-laced-halloween-treats.html

Los Angeles Times
29 October 2010

Sheriff's Department urges parents to check for pot-laced Halloween candy
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is urging parents to look for candy containing marijuana this Halloween.

Investigators have confiscated candies and snacks containing pot from marijuana dispensaries, and they are concerned such items could wind up in children's trick-or-treat bags, they said Friday in a statement. [...]

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20101030/NEWS01/10300314

Mansfield News Journal [OH]
30 October 2010

Police: Needle was in wrapper, not candy, when they arrived
News Journal staff report

A Mansfield father claimed he found a needle in a piece of candy his child received trick-or-treating Thursday, but no similar incidents have been reported, according to Mansfield Police Sgt. Bret Snabley.

The 37-year-old father told police he noticed a small hole in a Tootise Roll and he used his finger to get out the 1.25-inch sewing needle. He said his child was going door-to-door asking for candy along Beethoven Street and South Diamond Street. The man was not able to identify which house the suspicious candy came from. [...]

http://triblocal.com/schaumburg/2010/11/01/tampered-candy-being-tracked/

Triblocal Schaumburg [IL]
1 November 2010

Tampered candy being tracked
By Kate Thayer TribLocal reporter

Schaumburg police are looking for who might have tampered with candy handed out on Halloween in a neighborhood officials declined to identify.

Sgt. John Nebl said Monday police haven’t received any additional reports since alerting the public Sunday night that two residents received a candy bar with “a physical object” inserted. No one was injured. [...]

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news/local/article/896684--open-safety-pin-found-in-halloween-candy

Cambridge Times [ON]
2 November 2010

Open safety pin found in Halloween candy
Cambridge police officers will be canvassing Galt neighbourhoods after someone gave a preschool trick-or-treater a package of candies containing an open safety pin. [...]

http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-rat-poisoning-trick-or-treat-euclid-kf-txt,0,7274955.story

FOX 8 News [Cleveland, OH]
1 November 2010

Rat Poison Given as Halloween Candy, Family Says
By Kevin Freeman
Fox 8 Reporter

EUCLID, Ohio — Police say someone played a dirty trick while handing out Halloween treats. Investigators are now trying to figure out who gave out rat poison along with candy Sunday night.

"We came home, dumped out their candy and there it was... rat poison," said Lisa York, a mother. [...]

http://deltapolice.ca/media_releases/pdf/394.pdf

Delta Police Department [Delta, BC]

Media Release

Release date/time: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 – 1600 hours
Incident: Razor Blade in Halloween Candy
Date/Time: Sunday, October 31, 2010 – 1800/2000 hours
Location: Imperial Village Area, Tsawwassen
DPD file: 2010-22806

Razor Blade in Halloween Candy
A twenty-one year old woman who escorted a group on neighbourhood children around the Imperial Village area in Tsawwassen on Halloween evening was surprised on Monday afternoon when she bit into a piece of candy and discovered a razor blade. The victim was uncertain whether the blade had been inserted through the candy wrapper or if the wrapper had been partially opened and the blade stuck directly into the chocolate. She was unhurt in the incident.

The Delta Police Department wants everyone to be cautious when consuming Halloween treats. Sadly there are sick minded people who derive some sort of twisted pleasure from endangering the innocent, and in this incident the likely targets are children. We continue to investigate this unconscionable act.

[The original police media release describes the blade as a razor blade, although some subsequent newspaper reports liken it to an X-acto blade or one from a box cutter. Any one of these types of blade is capable of producing a serious injury, but calling it a razor blade is more evocative. -- bc]

http://www.theprovince.com/health/Razor+blade+found+Delta+Halloween+treat/3767205/story.html

The Province [Vancouver, BC]
3 November 2010

Razor blade found in Delta Halloween treat
By Staff Reporter, The Province

Delta police are looking for a person described as having “a sick, twisted mind” after a 21-year-old woman bit into a razor blade in a Halloween treat on Monday.

Sgt. Paul Eisenzimmer of the Delta Police Department said the woman was supervising a group of children under the age of 10 who were trick-or-treating in the Imperial Village subdivision of Tsawwassen, east of the intersection of 52nd Street and 16th Avenue, on Halloween night.

She was not injured.

Eisenzimmer said investigators have not determined whether the black wrapper of the miniature chocolate bar had been tampered with.

He described the blade as “an X-Acto knife kind of blade. But we define them as a razor blade type of blade.”

“People need to be aware that somebody out there has got a sick, twisted mind and was doing something that was unconscionable,” said Eisenzimmer, media liaison for the DPD.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/03/bc-delta-candy-razor-blade.html

CBC News [Canada]
3 November 2010

Blade found in Delta candy bar
A knife blade found in a Halloween candy bar has prompted police in Delta, B.C., to issue a warning to the public, but it is not clear yet exactly where the candy came from.

The blade was found by a 21-year-old woman who had taken a group of children out trick-or-treating Sunday in the Imperial Village area of Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver.

When she tried to eat some of the candy they'd gathered, she bit into a blade that had been stuck through the wrapper into the chocolate bar, police said. She was unhurt.

Acting Sgt. Paul Eisenzimmer said the blade apparently came from a small box-cutter knife, and investigators are trying to determine where the candy came from.

"We have isolated an area, but it's a large enough area that we can't be too specific at this point," said Eisenzimmer.

"Our investigators will check the addresses in the area to see whether there's anyone who stands out, whether there's someone who's mentally ill in the area or who has a criminal background for all sorts of things that could relate to this," he said.

http://swo.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101103/tainted-candy-hoax-101103/20101103/?hub=SWOHome

CTV News [Canada]
3 November 2010

Police say tainted candy reports are false
CTV Southwestern Ontario

Waterloo Regional Police say reports about possible tainted Halloween candy given out in Cambridge are false.

Postings were reportedly put up on social media Web sites saying a child died after eating tainted Maynard Sour Gummies or Cherry Gummies given out in the Moffatt Drive area of Cambridge. [...]

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/805801
The Waterloo Record [ON]
3 November 2010
Police refute social media suggestions of Waterloo Region deaths due to Halloween candy tampering

http://triblocal.com/schaumburg/2010/11/04/cops-candy-tampering-a-hoax/

Triblocal Schaumburg [IL]
4 November 2010

Cops: Candy tampering a hoax
By Kate Thayer
TribLocal reporter

Police arrested a Schaumburg teenager after discovering he made up Sunday’s candy tampering scare.

The 16-year-old boy is charged as a juvenile with a felony count of disorderly conduct in relation to the Halloween incident. He was released to the custody of his parents and awaits juvenile court proceedings.

Detectives discovered that he inserted a needle into a Snickers bar at his home, and then told his family that he received the candy while trick-or-treating, police said. His father believed him and reported to police that his son received tampered candy. [...]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2865758,tampered-halloween-candy-hoax-110410.article
Chicago Sun-Times
4 November 2010
Schaumburg police: Tampered candy was teen's hoax

http://www.wtvm.com/global/story.asp?s=13441329

WTVM-TV [Columbus, GA]
4 November 2010

4-year-old boy tests positive for meth; Halloween candy suspected
Lubbock, TX (KCBD) - Levelland police are waiting on lab tests to confirm whether or not Halloween candy given to a four year old was laced with drugs. This investigation is somewhat of a Halloween nightmare for police who are working to figure out how methamphetamines made it into the body of a four year old. [...]

http://deltapolice.ca/media_releases/pdf/400.pdf

Delta Police Department [Delta, BC]

Media Release

Release date/time: Thursday, November 4th, 2010 - 1530 hrs (Revised Copy)
Incident: Needle in Halloween Candy
Date/Time: Sunday, October 31st, 1700/1830 hrs
Location: Neighbourhood of Leslie Park - Ladner
DPD file: 10-22846

Halloween Candy – Needle Found in Chocolate Bar
Two days after Halloween a twelve year old Ladner boy bit into a small size Crispy Crunch chocolate bar and realized he had bitten into something hard. He removed the substance from his mouth and found a steel needle had been inserted into the bar. He was uninjured. The boy told his father who contacted the police.

On Halloween night the youth and five of his friends sent trick or treating within his neighborhood near Leslie Park on 55B Street in Ladner. They went through several streets in the area between 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. Once again, within our community, it would appear another person has played a dangerous trick that could have caused physical harm to this child. [...]

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2010-11-05/halloween-candy-levelland-incident-tests-negative-meth

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal [TX]

5 November 2010

Halloween candy in Levelland incident tests negative for meth
LEVELLAND - The Halloween candy and wrappers suspected in a boy's exposure to methamphetamine tested negative for the controlled substance.

On Oct. 29, 4-year-old Jamie Chavez was hospitalized after he ate a piece of candy that reportedly came from the Levelland ISD Halloween festival, according to a Levelland police report. [...]

http://www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/2010/11/01/news/doc4ccf23b6c1e17230889642.txt

Oneida Dispatch [NY]
1 November 2010

Halloween candy may have contained PCP
By MATT POWERS
Dispatch Staff Writer

ONEIDA – An Oneida woman says she was dosed with the powerful hallucinogen PCP when she ate a piece of Halloween candy Monday. [...]

http://www.oneidadispatch.com/articles/2010/11/10/news/doc4cdb58e59b5e9941027615.txt

Oneida Dispatch [NY]
10 November 2010

New test reveals no PCP in Oneida woman's Halloween candy
By The Dispatch Staff

ONEIDA – Oneida City Police say the results of a second, more-accurate test on the Oneida woman who reported being dosed by a PCP-laced piece of Halloween candy came back negative.

Jennifer Maxfield, of Seneca Street in Oneida, reported to police on Nov. 1 that she experienced hallucinations, shortness of breath and elevated heart rate after eating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin from her son’s Halloween candy. [...]

Halloween Gang Initiation Fear

http://www.cuatower.com/news/graffiti-on-southside-leads-to-rumors-of-gang-violence-1.1736067

CUA Tower [The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.]
29 October 2010

Graffiti on Southside Leads to Rumors of Gang Violence

By Alexandra Carella

Thomasine Johnson, the Director of the Department of Public Safety, sent an email to University students refuting rumors that there will be a gang initiation on the south side of campus. The suppositions surrounded the possibility that MS-13 gang members were planning to assault University students as part of an initiation rite. [...]

Suspicious Perfume Peddlers

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/10/jpso_debunks_internet_rumors_a.html

The Times-Picayune [New Orleans]
28 October 2010

JPSO debunks Internet rumors about perfume peddlers

Michelle Hunter, The Times-Picayune

Two different e-mail messages are making the rounds in Jefferson Parish from residents -- one from those who say they were afraid for their safety during encounters with suspicious perfume peddlers and another warning of free key rings with built-in global positioning systems.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said the perfume sellers are legitimate employees of a Metairie company called Big Schott Management. [...]

Mexicans Vote Illegally in U.S. Elections

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azdc

Arizona Republic
28 October 2010

Voter fraud in Arizona's 8th District? Nope, says secretary of state

WASHINGTON – On a nationally syndicated radio talk show this week, Republican congressional candidate Jesse Kelly warned that Mexican citizens are being transported across the Southwest Border to commit voter fraud in Arizona. [...]

In an interview Wednesday on The Mark Levin Show, Kelly told the conservative talk show host, “There’s actually rumors people have video of them busing people across from our Southern border. They literally bus people across from Mexico to have them vote at the polls on Election Day. Give them a meal, and then bus them back. It’s been done in the past, so we’re really fighting against that down here.” [...]

Koro Outbreak (India 2010)

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=sep3010/city06

The Assam Tribune [India]
30 September 2010

It’s a cultural syndrome, say doctors

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 29 – Doctors have discounted claims and apprehensions about the reported outbreak of a disease that affects males and females in peculiar ways. Senior doctors in Gauhati Medical College as well as those working in the rural interiors have rubbished reports which indicate that some males have seen their genital organs retract into their abdomen; while females have experienced the same with their breasts. [...]

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=sep3010/city05

The Assam Tribune [India]
30 September 2010

Ignorance causing panic among certain people

KABITA DUARAH

GUWAHATI, Sept 29 – [...] On a tour around the bustling capital city, which is looked upon as the intellectual hub of the State, one will bump into all sections of people with lime smeared on the ear lobe in an effort to shield oneself from the ‘dangerous disease’. Right to the well dressed men and women to the salesman in a sleek mall and the daily wage labourers, everyone is sporting lime spots on their ears and the more paranoid ones are immersing themselves in water holes. [...]

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/oct/261010-labour-camp-Goregaon-Aarey-Colony-Koro-mumbai.htm

Mid-Day [India]
26 October 2010

The curious case of shrinking genitalia
Mass panic at labour camp in Goregaon as twenty five men suffer from 'retracting' genitalia

By: Ketan Ranga

Place: Mumbai

Several labourers living in a work camp near Aarey Colony in Goregaon have been spending sleepless nights since Saturday after they found that the size of their genitals have been gradually reducing and getting inside the lower abdomen. The panicked sit in a bathtub and family members pour water on them to cure them. [...]

Gang Initiation Rite on Halloween

http://fairfieldmirror.com/2010/10/27/fairfield-reacts-to-potential-gang-threat/

The Mirror [Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT]
27 October 2010

Fairfield Reacts to Potential Gang Threat

By: Amber Nowak

[...] On Wednesday, October 13, the Department of Public Safety sent an e-mail to students announcing that they were taking student concerns seriously and were looking into reports of a possible gang initiation rite that would target Fairfield University students on Halloween. [...]

Poisoned Persimmons

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7176600.html

People's Daily Online [China]
25 October 2010

Scaremonger wanted after false rumors threaten persimmon farmers in east China

A false rumor that persimmons from a village in east China's Zhejiang Province are poisonous has upset farmers and prompted the local government to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of the scaremonger. [...] The leaflets alleged Japanese troops infected local persimmons with the disease when they occupied the area during World War Two in order to make Chinese people ill. [...]

Restaurant Forces Diners to Pay Exorbitant Bill

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Fake-E-mail-Warns-About-Safety-in-Nuevo-Progreso/j86UMiC3MU6o5zylRLqTZg.cspx

KRGV-TV [Texas]
23 October 2010

Fake E-mail Warns About Safety in Nuevo Progreso

Reported by: Jordan Williams

NUEVO PROGRESO, TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO - An email that's showing up in in-boxes around the Valley is warning about tourists' safety in Nuevo Progreso.

[...] It says: "My neighbor's sister and husband went over to Nuevo Progreso last week and had dinner. They went to Arturo's. When their check came for their dinner, about $28, their credit card bill read $400.00. Uncertain as to the bill, they brought the waiter back, and he told them in plain English, those two men over there at the door will let you out the door if you sign this credit card debit." [...]

Male Thieves Wearing Burqas

http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/north/8460456._Burqa_thief__reports_just_rumours/

Asian Image [UK]
19 October 2010

'Burqa thief' reports just rumours

By Asian Image reporter

Claims that males wearing 'Islamic burqas and veils' were gaining entry into houses have been rubbished by police.

Asian Image received several calls from concerned residents and shoppers in the Whalley Range and Brookhouse areas of Blackburn after rumours surfaced about men dressed up in burqas stealing handbags from shoppers and gaining entry to houses. [...]

Health and Safety Hysteria in the Media

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/10/lord-young-admits-that-manyhealth-and-safety-scare-stories-are-hysteria/

Financial Times [UK]
15 October 2010

Westminster Blog

Lord Young admits that many “health and safety” scare stories are “hysteria”

by Jim Pickard

In December 2009 David Cameron made a speech in which he promised to reduce the burden of health and safety. His most heart-rending example was that of a small boy who drowned while fishing for tadpoles. As Cameron told his audience:

What’s more, the fear of transgressing all these rules causes
people to stand aside when others need help.

This was most tragically illustrated in Wigan two years ago,
when a ten year old drowned in a pond, having rescued his
young sister, because officers were told not to intervene as they
hadn’t undertaken their ‘water rescue’ health and safety training.

But was it a true story?

Cameron commissioned former Tory minister Lord Young to write a report on health and safety, which was published today. [...]

Lord Young even helpfully provided some examples of nonsense stories which had made it into folklore: One of them, curiously, was the pond story cited by Mr Cameron last year. [...]

http://www.number10.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/402906_CommonSense_acc.pdf

HM Government, October 2010

Common Sense and Common Safety

A report by Lord Young of Graffham to the Prime Minister following a Whitehall-wide review of the operation of health and safety laws and the growth of the compensation culture

[See Annex D: Behind the myth: the truth behind health and safety hysteria in the media, pp. 49-50.]