| Synopsis |
The television show 'Inside Edition' ran a segment showing various ruses to lure women out of malls.
A man offers to help a woman change a flat tire at a mall. The woman balks, alerts mall security and returns to find the man has fled, leaving his briefcase containing rope and a butcher knife.
See the story here.
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Is it true?
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Yes and no.
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| Why? |
'Inside Edition' did run a story on August 8, 1998 on ploys to lure women out of malls, where presumably they would be vulnerable to attack. What 'Inside Edition' did not show was that such ruses were commonly used by criminals or even one instance of such a crime.
The attempted kidnapping at Tuttle Mall is a variation on a classic urban legend that urban folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand dubbed 'The Hairy Armed Hitchhiker'.
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| When? | Since 1998. Both the 'Inside Edition' warning and the 'Tuttle Mall' attempted kidnapping stories began circulating separately in 1998. In March 2000, someone combined the two stories with the claim that it was circulated by JC Penney's.
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| Comments |
'The Hairy Armed Hitchhiker' stories are well traveled. Brunvand has discovered versions of it circulating in Britain and Finland. Even the mall version is not new: Brunvand noted in "The Choking Doberman" that the disguised assailant had changed from a hitchhiker to a shopping center patron in 1983.
Its lineage arguably goes back even farther than that. Brunvand reports a story featuring a a disguised traveller robbing hapless victims that dates from 1834.
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| See also |
Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand discusses 'The Hairy Armed Hitchhiker' in:
- The Choking Doberman (1984)
'Inside Edition' ploys:
'The Hairy Armed Hitchhiker' stories:
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Urban Legend Zeitgeist: Scary Mall Legends