Metropolis Reality Forums - 911 Related Hoaxes

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 23^rd, 2024, 6:05pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť 911 Related Hoaxes ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   911 Related Hoaxes

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: 911 Related Hoaxes (Read 420 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

911 Related Hoaxes
« on: Sep 6^th, 2002, 4:32pm »

Quote

Modify

Claim: Person who performs a kindness for a stranger is rewarded by the stranger's telling her to avoid drinking Coca-Cola or Pepsi after a certain day.

An old student of mine came up to me yesterday and said that a good friend of his is a waiter at our local Red Lobster. This waiter had a customer of a Middle Eastern descent. The customer kept asking the waiter for a quarter. When he finally gave him the quarter, the customer said something along the lines of, "You want a tip?" To which the waiter said, "Sure." The customer then responded, "Don't drink Coke after June 1st." He then walked out. The waiter called the cops and alerted everyone right away and the customer was arrested nearby.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------

Recently, I heard what I suspect to be a rumor regarding Coca-Cola. Supposedly, a stock person was putting some groceries in the trunk of a car when he cautioned the owner not to buy Coca-Cola after 6/1/02. Naturally, after 9/11 everyone is extremely cautious about any "terrorist threat."

Now, you can take this with a grain of salt, but I thought it was worth passing on . . .

------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------

Ok I don't usually fall into the rumour category. Although this time I did.

Our good friend (God mother to Gabriella) has a friend (yadh yadah yadh) who was in our nationally known grocery store. This man was in front of her and was short $5.00. He was not budging on anything. Price, product etc . . . This "friend" decided to pay the difference so she could get home. The man was waiting for her outside the store and was very thankful. He wanted to repay her.

She said, "it's ok, never mind, etc."

He said, "Don't drink coke this summer."

I am a bit superstitious. But I love you all and feel the need to pass on this info. Good thing we don't drink alot of soda pop.

Origins: The helpful terrorists are back, but this time instead of warning kindly Americans which cities to avoid, they're advising consumers to stay away from that most quintessential of American products: Coca-Cola.

The versions cited above are simply reworkings of the "grateful stranger rewarding a helpful citizen with a warning about impending attack" type of tales that were circulating within a month of the September 11 terrorist attacks, that had been applied to IRA terrorists (among others) years earlier, and that have been told in various forms (particularly in connection with wars) for several decades now. No "Arabs" or men of "Middle Eastern descent" have been apprehended for tipping off people not to drink Coke, and June 1 has come and passed without a rash of Coca-Cola drinkers suddenly coming down with mysterious illnesses (or worse), and a widespread contamination of the country's Coke supply would be a rather difficult feat to pull off.

Nonetheless, this rumor continues to circulate in newer and newer versions that push the target date farther into the future to keep it current, saddling authorities with the task of debunking the same rumor over and over:

Pennsylvania State Police are trying to squelch an urban legend that features kindness to strangers, terrorism and poisoned cola.
The police terrorism tip line and e-mail address have received numerous reports from concerned citizens lately, reporting roughly the same story, which follows:

A person in a check-out line at a store is behind a person who appears to be from the Middle East. The Middle Eastern person is few cents short when paying for his or her purchase, and the next person offers to make up the difference.

Later, the Middle Eastern person comments on the act of kindness and says he or she hasn't been treated well since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

In appreciation, the person offers what seems to be insider information . . . not to drink a certain brand of soft drink, the implication being that the drink is poisoned. The brand of drink varies with the stories but the most commonly mentioned are Pepsi and Coke.

The state police release states that "stories of terrorists giving safety tips in return for good deeds are very common during times of unrest. However, law enforcement authorities have no evidence that this scenario has occurred."

(Just to be thorough, we inquired of Coca-Cola about the possibility of such a scenario, and they replied as follows:)

Thank you for contacting The Coca-Cola Company. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your comments regarding the quality and safety of products of The Coca-Cola Company.
The Coca-Cola Company has an uncompromising commitment to product safety. We want to assure you that Coca-Cola facilities use a number of processes to assure the safety and quality of the water and ingredients used to make Coca-Cola brand products. As I am sure you can appreciate, to ensure our safeguards, we will not discuss these processes publicly. Products of The Coca-Cola Company are produced and distributed through secure facilities.

We hope this is helpful in reaffirming your confidence in products of The Coca-Cola Company.

Later versions of the rumor targeted Pepsi, substituting it into the tale as the beverage the mysterious stranger warned against. Throughout the summer of 2002, we've watched as the date to stop drinking sodas by has been pushed back time and again -- in the earliest versions, folks were cautioned not to drink Coke after June 1, but we've seen this date rolled forward as time went on and nothing bad happened to any soda drinkers. Later recipients of the alert were warned to give up the fizz before June 15 and then July 4. Pepsi versions began appearing, specifying August 1, then August 20. Always the date given would be no more than a couple of weeks later than the date of the e-mail, making it seem as if the threat were imminent.

What's the point of these rumors? They may reflect a genuine, on-going unease that more terrorist attacks are inevitable, and that they will involve something less direct (and therefore less easily defended against) than bombs or guns or airplanes, such as the poisoning of water supplies. And if terrorists (especially ones with a proclivity for attacking American symbols) wanted to throw a scare into us by tainting our food or drink, what better target than America's -- and the world's -- two biggest and most famous brands of soft drink? On the other hand, since some versions of this rumor (such as the second example quoted above) make no mention of Arabs or Middle Easterners or terrorists (why is a "stock clerk" issuing a warning about Coke?), these warnings could just have started as the product of mischievous, Pepsi-loving pranksters. Either way, we don't plan on giving up our beloved soda pop.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/rumors/cocacola.htm

« Last Edit: Sep 6^th, 2002, 4:33pm by Rhune »

IP Logged

Irishlass
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 897

Re: 911 Related Hoaxes
« Reply #1 on: Sep 6^th, 2002, 10:03pm »

Quote

Modify

This one came to me earlier this week from, of all people, my very level headed daughter. One of her co-workers at school claimed this had happened to a friend of her mother. I must admit considering where this one came from, for a moment I wondered if it could be true. I immediately went to my favorite urban legend and folklore site and there at the top of the list was the "don't drink the soda" story. I guess this just proves that after almost a year, we are all still a little jumpy and willing to believe or at least consider things that a year ago we would have quickly dismissed as hoaxes.

IP Logged

Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »