Vending Machines of Death!
From the MailbagJanuary 3, 2001
Dear Urban Legends:
I got this email, and it has local cities and towns listed. Is this a copy of a hoax? Do you have any way of determining if it's true?
The one reason why I think this is probably not true is that Cokes cost at least a loonie (one Canadian dollar) in vending machines. The letter (see below) suggests that 50 cents is given in change:
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Subject: Worthy of a Look Better to be safe than sorry: Dear all: On an average day in your life, you are out and decide you are thirsty. You notice a pop machine in your surroundings. You go over to the pop machine, & drop in a loonie. After collecting your beverage, you reach in the little compartment to collect your 50 cents change. Once reaching in, you feel a sharp prick on the finger you inserted into the change box. Your finger is bleeding, you bend down to look inside the small area to see what pricked you. What you see is a small needle, with a note beside it: "YOU NOW HAVE THE H.I.V. VIRUS", it reads. ***This is not some scary fiction story! THIS IS NOW HAPPENING IN ALBERTA!!!... Please read on and then pass this warning to people you care about. At our student council meeting this afternoon, our advisor (a teacher at the school) told us that last week, she received a phone call from a friend at the University of Lethbridge. THE ABOVE SCENARIO HAPPENED THERE RECENTLY at the U of L) !!! How many it happened to or why not many have heard about it is beyond me, but THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!! Police suspect that this is the work of a particular cult in western Canada. It (these incidents) began in Saskatchewan and have now spread into Alberta. The prime targets are major cities, but there's no saying that it couldn't occur in smaller towns. It happened in Lethbridge and they are on the alert especially in Edmonton and Calgary. What happens is that somehow someone inserts a syringe or a needle/pin that has been infected with the HIV virus into a vending machine compartment. Beside it they leave a note saying that whomever has been pricked and is now infected. I KNOW IT SOUNDS CRAZY, BUT TAKING A PEEK INTO ANY COMPARTMENT OF ANY PUBLIC MACHINE (PAY-PHONE,POP MACHINE, VENDING MACHINE) *** BEFORE STICKING YOUR HAND IN THERE COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE *** Whether it is where you'd get your change, or where you'd reach in and collect a can of pop or pick up a bag of chips... Be on the look-out for a note or a needle. In order for someone to read the note or get pricked by the needle, they must be in a place where, if they checked first, anyone could see it. ***Don't let yourself become a victim & Please PASS on!!!*** |
Dear Reader:
Scary stuff, indeed. But, as you surmised, it's false — the latest variant of an old and familiar urban legend with precedents dating back to the 1920s and '30s.
Tales of the so-called "Needle Men" — sinister characters who lurked in public places waiting to prick unsuspecting women with opiate-laced needles and kidnap them — were first recorded in Lyle Saxon's 1945 book, Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales. "If they ever sticks their needles in your arm you is just a plain goner," went one oral account. "All they gotta do is jest brush by you, and there you is; you is been stuck." The victims were supposedly murdered and their bodies used in medical experiments.
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