Urban legend?

[korenyx]

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadcat.asp

The interesting thing about this is that it was actually told to you, and not emailed. I rarely hear people tell me these stories as they used to, now I only get them forwarded.

A guy I used to work with told me his friend bought a Corvette for $200.00 because the woman who sold it was getting back at her ex.
When I started working at the bookstore I found the story in a book of urban legends .

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I actually had a workman I had hired to build a fence for me tell me the "rope and barrel" story as though it had actually happened to a friend of his. I kept a straight face!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

.... I placed one on my lawn next to the street, on my property, but out of view from my house. It was not there the next day. I put one beside the trashcan on garbage pickup day - it was gone before the trash truck arrived. I placed one in the back of my pickup truck and parked at the grocery store. Vanished. I still have one left that I have been driving around with for a couple of weeks. Can't always find a crook when you need one. I figure as we get closer to Xmas that it has a good chance of disappearing as well. Saved me 20 bucks.

Maybe saved you $20 but the chair parts likely ended up dumped on some street or vacant lot. Sheesh, at least you could have dumped it in the trash of a large apartment complex or something. Not that I think that's OK either but just because you didn't dump it somewhere doesn't mean you aren't responsible that it probably was dumped.

 

[devnull]

Here's Mike Patton (Faith No More) relating an almost identical story about 'a girl I know'.

check youtube, v=TBA7CdFfCos (I cant post URLs before having posted 15 times)

Edit: It starts about 3:00

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

What if this really happened? Do you suppose there would be evidence that someone could find of it? If you knew their names perhaps you could look up death certificates but there would not likely be any public record of this if it did happen.

It's not a credible story. For one, a US tourist dying in Mexico is hardly unique.

Consular Information Sheet, Mexico

Second, why wouldn't they be concerned about entering the US with this body?

Return of Remains of Deceased Americans

Have you ever smelled a dead person not refrigerated or embalmed after a day or so? Not to mention the body fluids start to seep out as the skin rots.

What makes this story credible to urban legend believers is probably their lack of knowledge about actual deaths of people firsthand. People have been to funerals but not everyone has experienced someone dying in the room with them. The scene in a Chevy Chase movie does not come to mind.

 

[Jeff Corey]

Neal Boortz, the Atlanta radio talk show host used to tell this one on himself and swear it was true. Once during the Xmas shopping season, he carefully wrapped a dead gerbil in holiday wrapping paper. Where he got the gerbil or how it came to be a late gerbil, I do not remember. He said he tied the bow on it in such a way that when loosed, the bottom of the package would fall out. He then drove to Lenox Mall, a busy shopping area, parked his car near a restaurant which he used as his observation post, and left the package on the back seat of his car, with the window slightly rolled down and the doors unlocked. He said he wanted to see the type of person who would steal his "Xmas gift". You know how radio show hosts are about discussing current events. The Atlanta media had been warning shoppers about such things and giving tips on how to avoid being victimized. Neal said that eventually a middle aged lady parked her car near his and walked past his open window. He said she paused and turned around and walked past it in the opposite direction. She then turned and came back to his car and took the package and walked back to her own car. Neal said he hurriedly left the restaurant and saw her driving away. He got in his car and followed her. What she did was drive to another section of the lot where she parked again. He said as he drove by her car, he saw her with both arms raised and a look of horror on her face. He did not confront her, but merely drove away. I have often wondered if he really did that caper or was it just more radio talk show crap.

But I will tell this one on myself as it is ongoing. Recently while online, I leaned back in my office chair and it broke right where the seat post meets the mechanism plate. I called my garbage service to see if they would pick it up with the weekly trash and they said no, but they would send a special truck to get it for $20. At the time my wife had been doing her Xmas shopping online and the delivery guys were making a regular run to my house, so I got this bright idea. I got out a screwdriver and a wrench and dismantled that chair down as far as I could. The seat plate mechanism became the largest and heaviest remaining part. The seat and back went out separately in the regular garbage run mixed in with ordinary trash in a Hefty bag. Smaller parts went out also in trashbags, but the various heavy steel parts were carefully fitted into UPS boxes that I re-wrapped to look like they had not been opened. I placed one on my lawn next to the street, on my property, but out of view from my house. It was not there the next day. I put one beside the trashcan on garbage pickup day - it was gone before the trash truck arrived. I placed one in the back of my pickup truck and parked at the grocery store. Vanished. I still have one left that I have been driving around with for a couple of weeks. Can't always find a crook when you need one. I figure as we get closer to Xmas that it has a good chance of disappearing as well. Saved me 20 bucks.

That was claimed to be done during the NYC garbage strike, but Snopes demurs again http://snopes.com/crime/mootloot/garbage.asp

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Here's Mike Patton (Faith No More) relating an almost identical story about 'a girl I know'. (I cant post URLs before having posted 15 times)

Here you go.

Warning, a few 'f' and other misc words and some gross popcorn in the beard while chewing scenes.


The story starts ~ 3 minutes in. It's funny that there are so many details in this version.

Welcome to the forum, dev.

 

[blutoski]

Typical moralistic UL, and comes in variations.

One version I heard was a more deliberate Karma trick: garbage strike, giftwrap, unlocked car.

 

[kalen]

As she's on the subway, she's struggling with carrying the suitcase up and down the stairs- it was supposedly an enormous dog- and a young man offers to help her. He asks "Jesus, what do you have in there?!" She replies "Computers."

It's gotta be an urban legend. Who would ever name their dog "Computers?"

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Talking of animal ULs, I was told this story about 15 years ago, by a guy I worked with. He said it had happened to his immediate neighbour and swore blind it was true. It seems too "good" to be true but I admit I've never heard a variation on it before or since.

It goes like this. My workmate's neighbour is driving home. It's a hot summer's day and he's travelling pretty fast when he hits a cat. He slams on the brakes but it's too late. Feeling shaken, he gets out. He looks around and sees the cat stretched out unmoving on the pavement (that's the bit you walk on in the UK )

He's about to drive off - after all, what can he do? - when he sees the cat move a little. Knowing that he hit it hard he knows it must be smashed up inside and decides to put it out of his misery. He takes a spade from his car boot and hits the cat once over the head, killing it instantly.

That evening, he gets a visit from the police. The officers tell him they have a report from a woman that he killed her cat. Apparently the woman saw the whole incident. She saw him drive down the street, stop for no reason, go to the boot of his car, remove a spade and smash her cat over the head with it. Then, she said, he gets in his car and drives off. Luckily she managed to record his number plate from where she was standing at her window.

When the guy hears this he laughs because it's obvious how this poor woman's misinterpreted what happened. He tells the officers the full story and they find it pretty funny too.

However, before they go, just for completeness, they want to check out his car. The guy says sure, why not? They do, and that's when they find the dead cat wedged in the wheel arch of the car.

How did it end up in the wheel arch of his car, after he hit it with a shovel ?

Wouldn't the woman have mentioned that the cat disappeared after the incident ?

Last but not least, why would the police officers have thought the story was funny ?

 

[Madalch]

How did it end up in the wheel arch of his car, after he hit it with a shovel ?

Wouldn't the woman have mentioned that the cat disappeared after the incident ?

Last but not least, why would the police officers have thought the story was funny ?

You've missed the entire point of the story.

The man ran over a cat (which got caught in the wheel well of his car). He gets out of the car, sees a cat sleeping by the side of the road, thinks it's the one he ran over, and puts it out of its supposed misery.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

You've missed the entire point of the story.

The man ran over a cat (which got caught in the wheel well of his car). He gets out of the car, sees a cat sleeping by the side of the road, thinks it's the one he ran over, and puts it out of its supposed misery.

Oh, that's what it was supposed to be? I was really confused, too.

Well, that's really unconvincing, then. I've never seen a cat sleeping by the side of a road and have a hard time believing someone wouldn't see that the cat was unharmed and simply sleeping or check his car.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

You've missed the entire point of the story.

The man ran over a cat (which got caught in the wheel well of his car). He gets out of the car, sees a cat sleeping by the side of the road, thinks it's the one he ran over, and puts it out of its supposed misery.

pwned again..............

 

[Dogdoctor]

It's not a credible story. For one, a US tourist dying in Mexico is hardly unique.

Consular Information Sheet, Mexico

Second, why wouldn't they be concerned about entering the US with this body?

Return of Remains of Deceased Americans

Have you ever smelled a dead person not refrigerated or embalmed after a day or so? Not to mention the body fluids start to seep out as the skin rots.

What makes this story credible to urban legend believers is probably their lack of knowledge about actual deaths of people firsthand. People have been to funerals but not everyone has experienced someone dying in the room with them. The scene in a Chevy Chase movie does not come to mind.

According to them and they made lots of trips to Mexico and had lots of friends that did the same thing, they sort of had a club of people who did this type of trip regularly, it would take 6 months to get the paperwork squared away to bring her body back. They weren't worried about bringing the body back because they knew enough to be pretty sure they could get the body into the USA and avoid the paperwork to bring the body back. As far as Chevy Chase, they did this before that movie came out.

 

[boooeee]

According to them and they made lots of trips to Mexico and had lots of friends that did the same thing, they sort of had a club of people who did this type of trip regularly, it would take 6 months to get the paperwork squared away to bring her body back. They weren't worried about bringing the body back because they knew enough to be pretty sure they could get the body into the USA and avoid the paperwork to bring the body back. As far as Chevy Chase, they did this before that movie came out.

Did it happen before 1971? Because it was also a subplot of Tom Robbin's 1971 novel "Another Roadside Attraction". And, according to Snopes, the legend dates back to WWII.

 

[Jimcalagon]

OK, this is not an urban legend but it sounds like one and I know it is true because I was involved in it. I'm telling you because

1. It shows that crazy convoluted stories aren't necessarily untrue

2. It's pretty funny.

In the late 80s I worked in the IT department at a big factory manufacturing telephone exchanges in Liverpool (England). At the time I was a computer operator and we used to work a three week shift pattern, with one week in three being a 4pm - 12:15am shift. In practice this shift ended when the work (running overnight batches, backing up data and printing reports) was done and it often overran so that we would finish work in the wee small hours.

One of the chaps on my shift lived in North Wales, somewhere in the countryside behind Prestatyn, a fifty mile commute by car. He was a bit of an oddball, in the summer he would finish a late shift and drive home, getting home as the sun was rising about 3am and start cutting up logs with a chainsaw, endearing him to his neighbours... He always wore an old battered khaki army coat and drove a car which was fifteen years old if it was a day.

At the time there was a problem in North Wales with a welsh Nationalist group called "The Sons of Glendower" who regularly burned holiday homes in the area which were (sometimes) owned by English people and which increased the price of local housing.

Anyway, one night in the middle of winter we finished the late shift about 2am and he drove home. The heater in his car wasn't working and the temperature was close to freezing so he put on a balaclava and gloves while he was driving. He reckoned that it was quicker to drive along the little country lanes to get home rather than the A55 expressway. Unfortunately he was stopped by police as he bombed along one of these little country lanes.

You can imagine the look on the Police officers' faces when they found the car was being driven by a chap in an army coat, gloves and balaclava. They asked him to open the boot (trunk) and found an axe, firelighters and a can of petrol. Needless to say he was taken into custody straight away.

When the early shift came into work at the IT department at 6am they received a call from the North Wales Constabulary to say that they had a suspected terrorist in the cells who claimed that he worked in their office and had been there until the early hours of the morning. When the laughter subsided they did confirm that his story was true and he was released.

As I said, I know this is true, as I was working on the same shift as this guy at the time.

 

[hipparchia]

I like how the "dead grandma on top of the car" story gets a regional rendering.

The Eastern European version is about a family of Serbs who go to a wedding in Bulgaria and do some shopping of scarce goods. They buy a nice carpet.

Then, the grandma dies in the middle of the trip. Instead of bothering with formalities, the family rolls her up inside the carpet and drives home. On the way, they stop for a while and someone steals the carpet, since a good carpet was hard to come by in communist Eastern Europe.

 

[devnull]

The story starts ~ 3 minutes in. It's funny that there are so many details in this version.

Welcome to the forum, dev.

Thanks!

I love the bit right at the end by the way - "this was in Ohio or something"

 

[Skeptical Greg]

According to them and they made lots of trips to Mexico and had lots of friends that did the same thing, they sort of had a club of people who did this type of trip regularly, it would take 6 months to get the paperwork squared away to bring her body back. They weren't worried about bringing the body back because they knew enough to be pretty sure they could get the body into the USA and avoid the paperwork to bring the body back. As far as Chevy Chase, they did this before that movie came out.

The story showed up before the movie came out ..

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadgranny.asp


Your story could very well be true, but it should also be fairly easy to verify it..



Don't you hate it when your Grandma's body really does get stollen ..

No one will believe you ..

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I like how the "dead grandma on top of the car" story gets a regional rendering.

The Eastern European version is about a family of Serbs who go to a wedding in Bulgaria and do some shopping of scarce goods. They buy a nice carpet.

Then, the grandma dies in the middle of the trip. Instead of bothering with formalities, the family rolls her up inside the carpet and drives home. On the way, they stop for a while and someone steals the carpet, since a good carpet was hard to come by in communist Eastern Europe.

You know, the dead grandmas story sounds familiar, somehow. When I read it on snopes, I had the oddest feeling I had heard it before and something tells me that in a Polish version. I'll have to ask my parents if they've ever heard it before, the next chance I get.