A text message sent to authorities in Medford, Oregon warning off a gang initiation shooting at a local Wall-Mart is now determined to the latest such text message in an ongoing hoax.
The message warned that three women would be shot to death at a Wal-Mart, instead of merely being trampled to death or decapitated by Falling Prices.
Snopes.com includes an entry on the “gang initiation at Wal-Mart” phenomenon:
Claim: Gang initiates must assault or kill a woman, a small child, or an elderly person at a Wal-Mart
FALSE
Snopes’ entry on the rumor also contains a little background info on its possible origins:
The rumor seems to have begun with statements about gang initiation violence planned to take place at a mall or shopping that an unidentified woman says she overheard in a bathroom and which she subsequently reported to police in the city. The rumor was unsubstantiated - there was no guarantee the women who reported it actually did hear such a conversation or, even if she did, that the people she heard speaking weren’t playing a practical joke on her.
The hoax has also taken the form of chain emails (we’ve received a few about this in our day, possibly because so many of our friends and family members know our enduring love for scoring bargains on oversized Winnie the Pooh overalls, off-brand cereals or fishing tackle), sometimes specifying an attack on black women.
So guess what, America! You are momentarily safe from marauding gangs of unruly youth who enjoy throwing back Mountain Dews at the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, waiting to shoot you and your babies down.
That little girl still really is going to die of cancer if you don’t forward her poem to then people by midnight, though.
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