Recent e-mail claim isn’t true in area

By Bill Vander Weele

Sidney Herald
Published on Sunday, August 29, 2010 7:07 AM MDT

An e-mail that has been circulating in other parts of the country has apparently made its way into the MonDak area.

The e-mail claims that raping a woman is part of an initiation to become a gang member. The scheme involves placing a doll in a car seat or stroller along the highway. When a woman stops, the would-be gang member attacks her.

“There haven’t been any reports,” Sidney Chief of Police Frank DiFonzo said.

Snopes.com, a hoax-busting website, tagged the website rumor late last year when the e-mail was circulating in Nashville, Tenn. Browsing the Internet, there was a similar e-mail circulating in the Des Moines, Iowa, area as well as other parts of the country.

“It’s a concern that people tend to believe everything they read on the Internet,” DiFonzo said. “It’s another rumor created on the Internet.”

He added there was a complaint regarding “a couple of guys” who attempted to wave a vehicle down that was driven by a female in early August. When police arrived, no suspects were in the area. It’s not known for a fact what intention the males had.

editor@sidneyherald.com

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Comments

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of the Sidney Herald.

E wrote on Aug 30, 2010 10:44 AM:

" Don't believe forwarded e-mails. Or e-mails from addresses you don't know.

Done.. No need to check fact checking websites. "

Donna McQueen wrote on Aug 29, 2010 1:07 PM:

" I'm so glad to see you confront this issue of false rumors via emails. I've received numerous emails claiming this or that, but learned to check them out at snopes.com or truthorfiction.com before sending them on. If I find them to be false information or a hoax, I will send a return email to the sender with the information I found and the correlating evidence. "

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