The Kidnap Warning in Deerfield Township, Ohio
On Thursday, May 5, 2005, Deerfield Township in Ohio warned residents of a “local scam” in which gang members would hide in women’s cars at gas stations and kidnap them, according to the Cincinnati Inquirer.
Township officials sent out a press release and posted the story on their website.
They quickly pulled it down when told that the story is a widely circulated eRumor.
According to the article, the township was told of the alleged kidnap threat by the sheriff of Warren County. He got it in an email from a friend. After the media started calling him to find out where the local kidnappings had taken place, he said, “I don’t know where it happened, but it didn’t happen here.”
Most versions of the story describe a woman at a gas station being warned by an attendant that a man crawled into the back seat of her car while she was paying for her gas.
The email warns that this is happening a lot and is part of a gang initiation ritual.
No such incidents have been reported that TruthOrFiction.com is aware of and this eRumor has been circulating since the late 1990’s.