Are you sure about that????

So this afternoon I received the following mass email from one of my co-workers

POLICE ALERT - PLEASE READ AND PASS ON....

I'm passing this along! People are R E A L L Y crazy! If you are female, take heed! If you are male and have a significant female in your life who you care about, whether it's your wife, your girlfriend, your daughter, your sister, your niece, your cousin, your next door neighbor; whomever...............pass this along! Always, "Better safe than sorry!"

Police Warning (Send to Everyone)

PLEASE READ THIS AND FORWARD IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

There sure are some sicko people out there --

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 kindness and got in the 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 out of the station at the same time.. 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.


This drug is called 'BURUNDANGA' and it is used by people who wish to incapacitate a victim in order to steal from or take advantage of them.


This drug is four times dangerous than the date rape drug and is transferable on simple cards. So take heed and make sure you don't accept cards at any given time you are alone or from someone on the streets. This applies to those making house calls and slipping you a card when they offer their services.

PLEASE SEND THIS E-MAIL ALERT TO EVERY FEMALE YOU KNOW!!!!


Sgt. Gregory L. Joyner
Internal Affairs Unit
Louisville Metro Department of Corrections
400 South 6th Street
Louisville , Ky 40202
Office: (502) 574-7213 (502) 574-7213 (502) 574-7213


Don't worry if you didn't read the full message. I didn't. I did what I usually do. I went to Snopes and looked it up. Of course it was tagged as Snopes as an Urban Ledgend. Being polite, I responded with a simple message to everyone "I think this maybe an Urban Ledgend" along with the article from Snopes.

I wasn't surprised to have received this email. I get them all the time and usually when I let people know about the Snopes article they something to the effect of "thanks" or "I guess I should have checked that out first." But today I was surprise by the multiple responses that I received. They all basically said the same thing but here are a couple

Urban legend or not, it is a good idea to always be on
alert!

Really? do you mean it's always good to be on the alert for people handing out business card laced with a non-existent chemical, or do you mean it's always good to be on alert for fear-monger emails and pass them on without checking. Cleary my intent by sending the Snopes link was not to chastise the person who sent the email for being on the look out but it was a subtle reminder to check your facts before you spread fear or erroneous information and also an attempt to let the other people notified that this is not a real concern.