Claim: A woman in UK was jabbed with an unknown substance by a panhandler.
UNDETERMINED
Example: [Collected via e-mail, February 2007]
Dear All,
I would like to bring to your attention a terrible incident which happened to me on Friday
I was immediately suspicious of the situation as I would imagine a bus to anywhere would be more than
I proceeded up King St towards Cross Street but realised something was wrong. My left hand side had gone completely numb and my arm went into a spasm. I knew she had done something to me when she touched my arm.
I needed to tell someone quickly what had happened as I assumed in a few seconds I would be unconscious and what I assume would be her accomplice would be waiting for me to be completely helpless and do the unthinkable to me. I managed to get my phone out of pocket and just pressed last number
At the same time I stopped a lady and realised I sounded stupid at what I was saying but she could also hear me on the phone so she realised I was genuine. I started to lose the power of speech. She stayed with me and we got to
My arm was hurting but whatever I was injected with couldn't have penetrated completely so I got the feeling back about
It will probably be impossible to tell what I was injected with, and although I still await the results of blood tests they are only checking for diseases I may have been given. The police are confident it will be caught on CCTV and I await father information in that regard.
The reason for sending this e-mail is to please ask you to warn EVERYONE you know, not just women but men too and ask them to tell girlfriends, wives, sisters & mothers. The message needs to get through to be extra vigilant.
I was one of the lucky ones (blood results pending) and if I can make people aware of these people then I'd like to think it can make a difference.
Origins: Every now and then, one of the lurid "This could happen to you!" warnings circulated in
mind.
According to the BBC, an unnamed 32-year-old female victim was attacked in the manner described in the
This is a curious tale; despite the BBC article about the incident, we're not sure the attack happened. The BBC piece was drawn from what the victim told police had happened to her, but independent confirmation of the story's elements is lacking. There were no witnesses to the attack (or least none are reported to have come forward). No
The dearth of reportage of additional assaults in Manchester might be due to this occurrence's having been an isolated incident, but lacking some element of independent confirmation, we'll leave this one as "Undetermined" for now. It is worth pointing out that similar attacks have been reported in other places at other times (e.g., a May 1999 assault in Towson, Maryland, by a panhandler wielding a syringe upon a woman at a gas station).
Barbara "sticking point" Mikkelson
Last updated: 25 July 2011
Sources: |
Taylor, Paul. "Police Probe 'Syringe Attack.'" Manchester Metro News. 9 February 2007. BBC News. "Victim 'Injected' in Arm by Woman." 6 February 2007.