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Claim: E-mail describes an attempted rape in Vacaville, California.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2007]
Origins: We often receive forwarded crime warnings that are flawed and misleading because they describe many-years-ago incidents as recent events, contain a good deal of inaccurate detail and exaggeration, or present a single example as evidence that a particular form of crime is a common and widespread occurrence. And sometimes such warnings — as detailed as they may be — are made up out of whole cloth, which is what the
A bogus e-mail claiming to detail an attempted abduction at a local business has Vacaville police concerned that it might cause unnecessary panic.
While there's a remote chance that (as sometimes happens) the alert in question is a recirculation of an older message or an account of an incident that took place elsewhere which was later altered to include different place names, there is no evidence that the events described occurred in Vacaville or anywhere else.
The e-mail claims that a woman parked at a local warehouse store in Vacaville and when she came back out was nearly abducted by two men in a black or grey Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Vacaville Police "This incident did not happen as far as the police department can tell," he said. "It seems to be a 'string He said no one has reported anything "even remotely similar" to the supposed event. The e-mail goes on to offer advice about safety, including keeping car keys or an alarm in hand if you shop alone, and calling police if you see anything suspicious. "There is some good advice given about being aware of your surroundings but this is generally good advice anywhere," Weaver noted. "I would hate for innocent parties to be suspected as criminals based on this In addition, the e-mail lists specific local businesses where crimes purportedly occurred, which Weaver describes as unfair to those businesses. The bottom line, he said, is that the e-mail isn't true and shouldn't cause citizens undue worry. Last updated: 6 October 2007 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
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