Urban Legends.

[LordOfThe5Rings]

I know I've been hogging the boards the last few days, but I don't care :P Just been curious on other peoples opinions on things.

I didn't know where to put this, so I apologise if it's in the wrong category.

I was wondering what everyones favourite Urban Legend/Cautionary Tale was. I have been fascinated in them for pretty much forever, due to so many meanings and of course expressing the nations fears.

So what are your favourites? Feel free to share the UL with us! :)

^My sister's boyfriend was eating out at a restaurant with a group of friends, he had ordered a beef curry and was enjoying his meal when he found a small fragment of bone in his mouth. He removed it and was astonished to see it was actually a small piece of metal. He checked his cutlery in case a piece had broken off, but they were intact, so he called the waiter over to complain.

To his confusion, the waiter appeared flustered and was quite insistent on taking the piece of metal away. He became suspicious and pocketed it, leaving his share of the bill and leaving so that his friends could continue to dine without making a big scene.

The next day, he took the bit of metal into a police station, and they identified it as a microchip, the kind inserted into pets to prevent them from getting lost. ^

Can someone explain to me why this is sinister? I know it's horseshit, like all of these legends and I'm probably overthinking this but I can't see where the 'cautionary tale' or whatever is in this one?

D'oh...italics fail!

Curry made out of pet dog/cat, Harlett.

Oh, and the Phantom Hitchhiker who vanishes? It's not an Urban Legend...

I like the one with the babysitter who calls the police because she is sitting on the sofa watching tv when she sees a man with a knife staring at her through the patio doors opposite her. It's a dark snowy evening and the police arrive only to tell her there is no trace of tracks in the snow outside so she must have been mistaken. Until a junior officer notices wet footprints behind the sofa where she was sitting! What she actually saw was his reflection as he stood behind her.

Eek.

Aah...thanks, Troll. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer this morning!

I love these.

The one with the dog beside the bed had me petrified as a child.

There was also one about a couple in a car and they hear scratching on the roof.

Not sure how that one ends though

Mike, this one?

Mike, I used to love that story when I was young

Mike, that is The Boyfriends Death or The Hanging Tree.

granny on the roofrack.

Babysitter getting creepy calls that turn out made from the house she is in.

Yes that's it.

The one I remember had the escaped lunatic being mentioned on the radio.

Wasn't there a film about these.

I can't believe nobody had mentioned the guy who hooks up with a beautiful stranger in a hotel and washes up in a bath of ice with his kidneys missing. My personal favourite.

Just remembered one a woman in work was convinced was true.

She said that her 18yo niece had ended her first serious relationship and to help her get over it had gone on a girls weekend to Amsterdam. Whilst there she met a man in a club. After having a bit of a fumble he tried to persuade her to go home with him. She declined.

After returning home she developed a really bad cold sore that spread all over her lower face.

She went to the docs who took some swabs. A few days later the police were at her door as the tests had shown an infection that could only be caught from touching dead bodies. The police in Amsterdam later arrested the man from the club and found the bodies of several young women.

Work friend is convinced this actually happened. Even when we have shown her similiar stories on line. Bonkers!

Eww, minging.

What about the one where the girl picks up an old lady hitchhiker who gets in the passenger seat. Driving along the girl tries to engage in conversation with the lady who's face is mainly covered by her headscarf. The old lady doesn't say much and strikes the girl as weird. She looks down and notices the old lady has very hairy hands. She stops the car, saying something is wrong with it and asks the old lady to check the tires on her side. Old lady opens her door, the girl kicks her out of the car and drives to police station with old lady's bag still in the car. When they open it, it contains a butcher's knife, a hammer and pliers.

Woman goes for a smear and accidentally leaves a bus ticket stuck on her fanjo.

mintyy wtf? can't say I have heard that one before.

I cant remember the details but there was also one about someone killing a family member then chopping off a finger to get a ring.

Several years later old person knocking on door asking for somewhere to get warm. They hold their hand s up to the fire to show a missing finger.

Oh yeah, the smear test with the stamp/glitter on the fanny. I'm pretty sure someone has posted on here claiming it happened to them (even though it's on snopes)

I don't get the grannies in Mexico one. [dim]

This thread is giving me v agreeable spooky shivers only because it's daytime, and if I think of them tonight I'll terrify myself

?Mexico?

Dear god the one about the clown statue and the man with a knife being a reflection has made me feel sick and sent that horrible chill down my spine, thank goodness it's mid afternoon and I have a house full of kids !!!

Actually the one with the hitchhiker and the briefcase is chilling as well

Mike: woman goes for a smear test and has a bit of a long wait in the waiting room. Needs a wee, goes to toilet but unfortunately no loo paper! Rummages in handbag and luckily finds one lone tissue in the bottom of the bag to wipe herself.

During smear test nurse/doctor (I think its supposed to be slightly more funny if its a male doctor) retrieves a used bus ticket from the lady's labia and holds it up and might even make a funny quip about return trip or all change at the next stop or summat like that.

I have heard of that one it is about 30 odd years old now