Toilet Paper Shortage Because of the 2003 Southern California Fires–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
The eRumor claims that because of the record Southern California brush and forest fires in 2003, the manufacturing plant responsible for 97 1/2 percent of America’s toilet paper was destroyed and we’re facing a toilet paper crisis.
The Truth:
It’s a complete hoax.
TruthOrFiction.com has not found any evidence of the existence of the alleged “Clappington Paper Products” factory or anything like it that got destroyed during the devastating 2003 Southern California fires.
The eRumor is poorly constructed and is probably an attempt on someone’s part to create a toilet paper shortage just for the fun of it.
For the record, we checked with both the San Bernardino county and city fire departments and neither of them has a “Sergeant K. Jameson.”
For those who remember, it prompts memories of an actual run on toilet paper that was caused by a joke by Tonight Show host Johnny Carson on December 19, 1973.
In response to a comment on potential toilet paper shortages by a congressman, Carson’s writers included it in his monologue.
It prompted a buying spree by consumers that left empty shelves in many markets.