Sugar Water in the Gas Tank Urban Legend

Internet urban legend warns of a criminal ploy to disable womens vehicles by pouring sugar water in their gas tanks. Does this trick really work? Description: Urban legendCirculating since: Oct. 2005 (this version)Status: Dubious (see details below) Example Email contributed Oct. 14, 2005: Subject: Warning....be alert!Thought this might be worth passing on.Subject: FW: Warning....be alert! Target in Olathe.I just wanted to let you all know of something that happened to me today in the Target parking lot. be aware of this and let everyone you know aware so this does not happen to anyone else. I was at Target today to return something which only took a couple of minutes. when I pulled into the parking lot a man in a car pulled in a couple spaces down from me. he started to go into the store about the same time as I did, then turned back around and went back to his car. I went into Target returned my items and walked back out to get into my car. when I walked out, he was walking away from my car carrying a small gas can. I noticed there was fluid on the side of my car and a puddle beside it. I got into my car not sure of what happened, wrote down his license plate # and left. He followed me out of the parking lot and onto 169. I was only able to drive about a half a mile and my car started acting funny. It died on me as I was driving and I was able to pull into an area business along the highway. I just sat in my car and called the police. The man drove by three times as I waited. The police who came took a report and said that he had poured sugar water into my gas tank which is what made my car stall. It was a great way to get a woman by herself to be stranded on the streets. Luckily for me I was able to stop where there were people around. The police know where the car came from and are working on this now. Not sure what will happen but my car is now in the shop not running, but it could have been much worse for me. Just be aware that this is happening and always be aware of your surroundings. It certainly scared me and I am grateful that nothing else happened. Analysis While its not 100 percent beyond the realm of possibility, the incident described above seems unlikely to have happened given the haphazard nature of the ploy involved. Putting sugar or water in the gas tank of a vehicle can indeed cause the engine to stall—sugar, because the granules wont dissolve in gasoline and may clog the fuel filter; water, because it interrupts combustion—but neither method will produce a predictably-timed engine failure. Depending on the quantity of the foreign substance introduced, it might take minutes, hours, or even days for the stall to occur, if it occurs at all. The same would hold true if the foreign substance was a sugar-water mixture. Dissolved in water, the sugars effect would be negligible, so its essentially no different than pouring plain H2O in the gas tank. The point is, the evildoer who plans to use this method to waylay his victim in a conveniently secluded spot is leaving an awful lot to chance, and, more likely than not, will fail. Which makes it unlikely that such a ploy is often used. From Kansas to Texas to North Carolina It may seem strange, then, to find email reports of incidents matching this exact description happening in Target store parking lots everywhere from Kansas to Texas to North Carolina. But its not so strange when you consider that this forwarded message has been circulating non-stop since 2005, accruing helpful bits of misinformation along the way. In this respect, the text fulfills the classic definition of what folklorists call a migratory legend, with individuals revising specific details to localize the tale before passing it along. At the same time, the story has inspired skeptical news coverage in some cities based on disavowals by local police. â€Å"It’s not happening in Hickory, police captain Clyde Deal told the Hickory, NC Daily Record after the email surfaced there in March 2007. â€Å"As far as we can tell, it’s not happening anywhere in western North Carolina.† Assistant police chief Mike Samp of Mishawaka, Indiana, gave a similar response to the South Bend Tribune: We researched it and could find no police report, which quite naturally, made us suspicious. Police in Wheeling, Ohio simply dismissed it as a hoax. Another Close Call Sifting through email archives, we discovered a variant of this story dating from November 2002 in which a perpetrator who disables a womans car with sugar water is captured by police and found to have an array of kidnapping implements hidden in his van. This alternate version bears a general similarity to the one weve already seen, but is also reminiscent of The Knife in the Briefcase, an urban legend circulating online since the late 90s in which a woman survives a close call in a shopping mall parking lot with a good Samaritan who turns out to be packing a knife, duct tape, and chloroform. Email contributed Nov. 11, 2002: Fw: THIS ALERT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!I wanted to share a TRUE story with all of you. I heard about this last week and found out, that it is indeed TRUE. This happened to Cathy Conaways sister, who lives in North Guyton. She went to the Wal-Mart in Pooler about 11:00 one night about 1-2 weeks ago. (Im sure this is familiar for a lot of us) When she parked her car, there was a van parked right next to her. She heard noise coming from inside but didnt see anyone in it. (didnt think much about it then)About 1 a.m. she was leaving and noticed that the van was now parked in front of her vehicle. Getting a little nervous ( that gut feeling) she went back inside and asked if a security guard could walk her out. As they were loading her car, the van pulled out and left. As she got on the road, she noticed the same van behind her. She went a little ways (between Pooler and Faulkville) and her car began to spit and sputter. By this time she was really scared and called 911 from her cell phone. As she pulled over, the police was right there, and the van went on by.While talking to the police the van had turned around and went back by. She pointed it out and the police went after it. The man inside was arrested and taken to jail, but was released on a $700 bond. In his van they found: HER gas cap, a gun, hunting knife, duct tape, rope, a gallon jug of sugar water, and two pairs of womens underwear!!!!!!!!!! After getting her vehicle checked out for the problem, it was determined that sugar and water had been poured into her gas tank.They have found the man and he is back in jail. He is from Walterboro, S.C. I thought I would share this with you since Christmas shopping nights are just ahead. PLEASE be aware of your surroundings where ever you go. As for me, Im getting a LOCKING gas cap. They sell them (where else but) Wal-Mart. Anyway, the bottom line is: BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Remember the lady that went missing from Rincon several months ago? They found her car , I think in the Freds parking lot, but still have not found her. Makes you wonder, doesnt it Cautionary tales are meant to instruct, and in a vague sense these examples may be edifying even though theyre false, in that they remind potential crime victims to take note of their surroundings and be wary of the advances of strangers when alone. But they also mislead, diverting attention to fictional scenarios and creating a climate of fear. Remember the fable of the boy who cried wolf? People will only be deceived so many times before they just stop listening, and that defeats the purpose. Sources I Put Sugar in My Husbands Gas Tank... Car TalkDont Panic, Widespread Email Warning Women Just a Prank. Hickory Record (North Carolina).Another Urban Legend Gets Debunked. South Bend Tribune, 10 March 2007.Hoax Email Aimed at Women. WTOV-TV News, 28 February 2007.What If I Put Sugar in Someones Gas Tank? How Stuff Works.