Police Warning about Gang Members Hiding in the Back Seats of Cars to Kidnap Women-Mostly Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A warning is being issued by police in major cities about gang members who are kidnapping women to rape or kill. It’s part of a gang initiation ritual and the gang members are hiding in the back seats of women’s cars. The story came to light when a gas station attendant spotted a man in the rear seat of a car, warned the woman and called police.
The Truth:
No such threat has been documented and for most of the time this eRumor has circulated, there has never been any substantiation of any law enforcement agency issuing such a warning or even reporting such a story involving gangs or initiations.
In September, 2007, however, police in Decatur, Alabama, said they had a report of an event that was similar. According to the Decatur Daily News, a 23-year-old woman said that she ended up with a would-be kidnapper in the back seat of her SUV. She said that she had just completed an evening college class and was talking on the phone while driving away from the campus. A man sat up in the back seat and said he wanted her to take him somewhere. As he started climbing over the seat into the front of the SUV, she slammed on her brakes, put the car in park, and got out. The man grabbed a pack of cigarettes, got out of the car, and walked away. The driver said he appeared to have had a gun. She said she had locked her car while attending the college class and theorized that the man had actually gotten into her car when she stopped at a grocery store earlier in the evening.
One of our staff members here at TruthOrFiction.com remembers dealing with this story in Los Angeles in the early 1970’s. It’s gone through various versions, but always includes a menacing man in the back seat spotted by an alert gas station attendant. Some stories say it’s a gang member who is going to kidnap and rape the woman. Others say it’s a serial killer. Others say the gang members are supposed to kill the woman and take one body part or another as a part of an initiation.