To not point out story is an urban legend?

When my eldest came home from primary school telling me all about a tree climbing octopus that the teacher had told them about, I admit to having a word with the teacher to say it was an urban legend. Poor chap hadn't long qualified so was rather enthusiastic with things he thought a class of 5yr olds would like to know!

A bit of a disgusting one.
I think it was early to mid nineties me and dh went out for a meal with another couple.

The bloke told a story of the first time he met his previous girlfriends parents. He went to the toilet and did a massive poo. It wouldn't flush. After several attempts of trying to get rid of it, scooped it up with toilet paper and lobbed it out of the bathroom window, only for it to land on the converastory roof where everyone was sitting.

The number of people this unfortunate episode has happened to is unreal.
I even heard someone recounting how it happened to them on the radio when a dj wanted to hear people's embarrassing stories.

I love a good Urban Legend! I don't see any single reason to call someone out when they're telling it though... It's just a mean-spirited thing to do.

I remember the one from the early 80's about Marc Almond of Soft Cell. Years later a colleague from a different part of the country mentioned it. Funny how urban legends spread far and wide.

Hamster up Richard Gere's bum: from my teen years.

I miss being told these
Since the advent of the smartphone taking shite for shites sake has taken a downturn and I miss it so much.

Maybe its an Irish thing, but a good story is in the telling and noone really cares if its true or not.

This and being able to debate what year x happened or if y really lived in America.
Then out comes the smartphone and all banter is over.

Its a real loss.

The one I hear most is ‘a couple had a meal for x Chinese/Indian restaurant, bit into a spring roll/naan bread, felt something hard, it was a cats/dogs microchip’.

Yes, my BIL told me the penguin one, said it had happened on his school trip and the kid had it inside his coat. This was back in the 90s so it’s clearly been doing the rounds for a while!

I remember the chicken burger abscess one from school, and one of my teachers claimed to have taught a Crystal Shanda Lear - which I later found out was the actual name of the Lear jet founder’s daughter! But doubt she went to school in Catford…

It was a film in the 80's- When a stranger calls.

He would call and say "have you checked the children"
and the calls were coming from inside the house.

I think there was a re-make more recently

Another source here:
Zoo fears worst for missing penguin | UK news | The Guardian

Someone told that story yesterday in our book group. I've seen it before somewhere and I think it's a plot from a book. It came about when I told the true story of the time I took my 8 month old kitten to school in an Adidas bag and she got out in class. I was 12.

Lol lol lol

I was coming on to say a variation of this one. I believed it when I first heard, because it was told to me by a very sensible, educated friend who was a headteacher. She said it happened to her NCT friend's sister and child in David Jones department store. She was horrified, so clearly believed it herself. I was like "why the hell hasn't this been all over the news??"

I then heard a variation a year or two later and realised it must be an urban legend.

Haha that's exactly the one I was thinking of reading this! Friends ex boyfriend recounted it having happened to his mum.

You often see this sort of thing as clickbait on Facebook in unrelated articles “when the vet saw it he turned white and called the police”

The kidnapped child story happened in Tesco here. Although it's also happened at Disneyland Paris. Naturally the kidnappers were often Muslims who dressed the child in a burka, sometimes 'Eastern European men' who cut the girls hair to make her look like a boy. It happens a lot apparently!

We were told one at school which I believed for years, but assume isn't true.
A woman who was driving alone in the dark through some woodland stooped as there was a body shaped bundle in the road. She got out the car, moved it as it wasn't a body and got back in the car. Another car had come up behind her and basically drove bumper to bumper with her which was of course terrifying. So instead of going home she drove to her parents house and pulled into the driveway beeping her horn until her father came out. The other car was still right behind her. Of course her dad went to the other car to ask wtf they were playing at. When she got out the car to check the bundle in the road a man had climbed in the back. Luckily the 2nd car saw it happen

This terrified 11 year old me!

😂 love this one! Where we lived it was a puppy she found on the street who wasn’t gaining weight and she took it to the vet and it turned out to be a Cambodian rat who had climbed on a ship which ended up in the north of England

I was genuinely on a school trip where a small monkey was smuggled onto the bus by one of the boys. It was discovered before we left the car park.
The school was banned from returning. There was a lot of trouble and a very painful assembly for all of us.

The PPs comment about penguins did make me chuckle. I can well believe there are penguin thefts as part of organised crime but I can't see school children routinely being able to steal penguins and get them back to the coach or whatever because as PP pointed out 'They don't want to go in bags'

The Boa sizing up for dinner one was told to us as 11 year olds by our science teacher! Of all people 🤦 over 20 years ago now.

The one I did hear as a teen and could never completely be convinced it was or wasn't true was the girl babysitting a baby in the early 90s, everytime she went downstairs the baby would scream. She eventually rang the parents to say the 6ft clown in the corner was unsettling the baby but the parents are horrified to say there is no 6ft clown in their house and it was an intruder. I mean it's an urban legend but someone had to have thought it up in the first place...

One of the worst things I’ve noticed in the social media age is this pattern - someone spreads a rumour, usually a mutated urban myth, which goes around on social media. Because the rumour could potentially have a big impact on people IF it were true, local police put out a warning about it. Other people then see the police have mentioned it and therefore it MUST be true because they think it’s been investigated and proven as true, when that’s not what happened at all. Killer clowns and red vs blue schools spring to mind as two recent examples of this. Also, because it’s been spread around so much there will always be people who then hop on the bandwagon and eg dress up as a clown which further provides “proof” for the hard of thinking.

I wish police forces were more proactive about saying these things are a pile of shit that’s been made up entirely, but they never do.

And Bob Holness played the saxophone on Baker Street.

What? You mean he didn’t? 😱😮

I heard about this one too! I'm nowhere near London so it was a case of 'insert your nearest big city'. Am pretty sure my mum told me this one at the time.

Can anybody remember the dead dog the suitcase?

They were probably just trying to amuse you.
It's quite a generous thing to try to make people laugh.

Yeah, she’s lying though?

i remember TWENTY YEARS AGO a friend of mine told me this happened to her mum’s friend… I didn’t say anything but I’d already read it on snopes.

It’s one of the ancient texts 😆