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What’s amazing is that this story has endured, making its way around the world. And thanks to the Internet, it keeps popping up — like a bad penny — and tossed back into circulation, most times by well-meaning people just trying to do some good.
The latest version actually dates back to 2008. It goes like this:
“A man came over and offered his services as a painter to a female putting gas in her car and left his card. She said no, but accepted his card out of courtesy and got in her car. The man then got into a car driven by another gentleman.
“As the lady left the service station, she saw the men following her …. Almost immediately, she started to feel dizzy and could not catch her breath. She tried to open the window and realized that the odor was on her hand; the same hand which accepted the card from the gentleman at the gas station.
“She then noticed the men were immediately behind her and she felt she needed to do something at that moment. She drove into the first driveway and began to honk her horn repeatedly to ask for help. The men drove away but the lady still felt pretty bad for several minutes after she could finally catch her breath. Apparently, there was a substance on the card that could have seriously injured her.”
No, she didn’t. No, there wasn’t. Etc.
For all its many advantages, the Internet can be like a campfire, with people taking turns telling scary stories that others accept as true.
Like, for instance, the idea that this mysterious “zombie powder” is “four times more dangerous than the date rape drug and is transferable on simple cards.” Or that this very incident, described in exactly the same set of words, happened in Texas, in Kentucky, and in North Carolina… as well as in Halifax, Southern Ontario and ENGLAND.
Last year, someone tricked out the story, including the name of a gas station in Kansas City, Missouri, and an occupation for the supposed victim (law firm photographer). At the end, instead of pulling into someone’s driveway and leaning on the horn, she runs screaming into a McDonald’s. This devilish incident, the writer claims, “gave rise” to copycats in other states — in which case, the hoax turns into a snake eating itself.
I operate CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM, among other pursuits, and I hand my card out everywhere I go. I would hate for someone to say “No thanks” because they believed — and might have even passed on — a bogus chain letter.
In all cases, if CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM hasn’t already written about it, you can test any and all urban legends through the ultimate authority on such matters: Snopes.com.
It is there that you will find the history of the business-card scare (three years ago, the supposed victim was a neighbor of a woman named Jaime Rodriguez in Katy, Texas), along with links to articles about the hoax dating back to 1994(!).
Yes, our government for years has warned travelers to Colombia about the burundanga — which, if INGESTED in a large enough dose, can make you disoriented and vulnerable, even unconscious.
But Snopes warns that burundanga “has no scent (or flavor), so even a card saturated with it wouldn’t be described as producing a ‘strong odor.’ As well, this drug needs to be swallowed or inhaled if it is to have the effect described here; mere incidental tactile contact with an item permeated by it wouldn’t deliver a sufficient quantity to the intended victim’s system.”
I was involved in covering one of these scares. It even made the Snopes list.
Remember the Halloween several years back when kids couldn’t go trick-or-treating because some “weirdo” bought up all the candy at the Hackensack COSTCO and was planning, some said, to lace it with poison?
Turned out he was a flea market dealer who bought in bulk and sold by the piece. With Halloween coming up, he expected to make a killing — although not the kind the fear-mongers predicted.
After picking him up for questioning, Hackensack police gave the man back his candy and apologized for the inconvenience. By then, the story had spread far and wide — making the regional and even national news.
Yes: Better to be safe than sorry. But in this day and age, it’s better to take three seconds to check something out first before forwarding bad info.
Just picture me at a business affair trying to hand out my card — as people walk away.
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