Bathroom Robbery

Robbers Hiding in Women's Bathroom Stalls-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor:
A warning that crooks are hiding in women's restrooms. They wait in a toilet stall until a woman is alone in an adjacent stall then stand up and rob the woman at gunpoint. They then taken the woman's clothes, leaving her naked in the restroom, hang an "out of order" sign on the restroom door and make their get away while the woman waits in terror---and waits for a long time because nobody comes into the restroom because of the "out of order" sign.

The Truth:
This is a hoax that has circulated on the Internet for many years.

There are no reported cases of this actually happening.

Whether this was fabricated by someone as a joke or is an expression of someone's worst fears, we don't know, but it is a false story.

It's a very unlikely scenario that a man would go into a women's restroom with multiple stalls without being seen (the restroom would have to be empty), hide for any length of time in a stall, have the fortune that the only woman left in the room would be in the stall next to him, that nobody else would come into the restroom while he was robbing the woman and making her disrobe, that he would exit without being seen, and then that the woman would really wait for one or two hours before peeking out the door and asking for help.

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

The Latest Scam: Robbing Females Using the Bathrooms
This is deep... This is the first time I heard this one!!! Please forward to someone you love...
The Latest Scam: Robbing Females Using the Bathrooms at Shopping Malls.
The way the scam works is, a man slips into the women's rest-room and sneaks into a stall. He waits until there is only one woman in the restroom in a neighboring stall. The criminal then stands on the toilet and points a hand gun into the next stall, demanding the woman’s valuables. After getting her cash and jewelry, he demands that she remove all of her clothing and kick them out of the stall.
The thief tosses the clothing into a shopping bag, hangs an out of order sign on the restroom door, and slips back into the mall. The out o f order sign ensures no one will soon come to the woman's rescue. It usually takes an hour or two for the woman to work up the nerve to leave the restroom in the nude, giving the criminal ample time to make his get away. The woman is left naked and humiliated in a mall full of strangers. The best defense, says police, is to never go into a shopping mall restroom alone, as only women who are by themselves are targeted.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!
This has so far been a nearly perfect crime, as none of the perpetrators have been caught. Don't let this happen to you.
Please tell your women friends.