To want to take the local plods AND headteachers by the scruff of the neck and suggest they all go and read Snopes?

[SolidGoldBrass]

There has been a sudden epidemic of Evil Foreign-Looking Childstealers in Cars round here. Not one child has gone missing, of course but there are pieces in the local paper, letters home from school, everyone going Defcon 3 and the rest.
FFS. This is likely to be at the very most one possible custody issue, a couple of lost tourist, maybe one chancer and the rest completely made up.

There was a rumour a few months ago where I live re a two men in a car who had tried to snatch a child.

I work for the police and knew this had never been reported to them but the goss in the playground included them being arrested at gunpoint and other outrageous waffle.

Seems that every 6 months or so there is another 'story' like this circulating.....

Not so much an epidemic, more of a seasonal, "I'm bored,what can I report to the police today?" Plods have to share info and the teachers over react deal with it by scaremongering

The police here in West Sussex regularly email rumours to the schools for distribution to the parents warning of credit card scams and the like. 2 minutes on Snopes reveals that they have been circulating for years. Pisses me off no end.

Unless you know something to be untrue, then I do think better safe than sorry. Maybe, an extra cautious public might deter someone who had been seen acting suspiciously around children. Maybe your community is worrying about nothing but I think it's great that they are taking care just in case

I had never heard of Snopes!

Why wasn't I told??

oh we get REAL ones.
from the police

you are amachooors

Agree, I posted on here about a 'forrin' couple shaving a girl baby and dressing her in boys clothes in Asda here a few months back, I started asking friends if they had heard about it and the story changed so much it was laughable, lots on mumsnetters recognised the story so my small town is local to loads of you!

The town where I used to live had this a few weeks ago.

3 men operating in 3 specific vehicles.

1 was arrested. No idea about the other 2.

It isnt ALWAYS rumours, and when it is your children in the schools concerned, wouldnt you rather be on alert?!

Perhaps they should send home letters warning parents to be vigilant and look out for fathers, brothers, uncles, grandparents and themselves, as most abuse happens within the family.

SGB you must live in my borough!!! It's been all over the local rag plus letter home from school! They didn't even happen near the dc's school..............

Have you all heard that story about the two men (illegal immigrants whose nationality changes depending on what ethnic group the wider community is currently bothered by). Anyway these two men are caught in the toilets of Asda/Tesco/Morrisons (never Waitrose though I note), anyway it's just down the road from where you live, they are found with with a female child. They are in the process of shaving the head of the child to make her look like a boy.

Police are warning everyone to be on their guard.

In at least two of the reports round here i's a man in a car 'attempting to speak to' a teenager. You know, he really could have been asking for directions...
THe fact that the current rash of mystery vanishing aliens round here are all 'foreign loking' suggests a racist element to the panic as well.

Ipswich by any chance?

Hmmmm, maybe I'll rethink that relocation to Suffolk then!

try this one

Whatever the story before spreading it just google the key words and sites such as Snopes will tell you it is a hoax.

SGB - slightly off-topic, perhaps, but when my sister and I were (young-ish) teenagers, a Dutch guy pulled up and asked us for directions. We patiently explained to him that he was going the wrong way, he thanked us and turned around.

No doubt if we'd told anyone, the entire county would have been on high alert following that .

Child snatchings do happen, I guess, but a lot less frequently than the scare stories make out. YANBU; these things do get blown up out of proportion.

Mind you, as other people have said, if you're at all unsure, it's probably best to at least warn people that it might be a risk. I'd probably frame it as that though - a possible risk - rather than an all out panic.

We had a similar alert where I used to live. The rumours were that a strange man was hanging around the school in the next village and were taken up by the local paper, with warnings issued in my DD's weekly round-up letter.

It turned out to be a lone Dad who had recently moved to the area and was taking a look at the behaviour of the children as they left the school before deciding whether it was acceptable for his children. He quickly concluded that he would send his DC there and did so, yet his appearance at the gates in his car, as a hitherto unknown in a small village caused further panic until people cottoned on that he was a parent of new pupils.

The girl with her head being shaved in the supermarket toilets has been doing the rounds for years.

Ooh yes Saslou, better safe than sorry.

It's not just children at risk either. Ladies, beware of men approaching you in a car park asking you to sniff their perfume sample. It's really chloroform, and the lord alone knows what they intend to do to once you're on your back with your legs in the air...

Also if you find that there is a strange man in the back of your car when you return from shopping the very large knife is hidden under the passenger seat. HTH.

Oh and if a bloke knocks on your door and asks you to take your top and bra off as the local council are conducting a survey into air pollution and its effects on nipple hair growth, don't be fooled. He just wants to see your tits.

Oh yes, totally heard the Shaved Head thing in the US. When Mall of America opened it was HUGE.

I do get fed up of these emails, especially the ones purporting to come from the police (a lot of the time they don't). Snopes is an excellent resource but you can just google the email title and hoax to see if it comes up. There are a few sites that deal with it - I used to take great pleasure (ironic) in sending a Reply All with the Snopes (or other site) link, asking people to please check first rather than spam up everyone's inbox.

Sadly some people never learn and I still regularly get this shit. I've given up "reply all" though - bit more internet security conscious now.

I've never seen the girl with the shaved head one though - seen all the others.