Urban Legend Needles Hidden Under Gas Pump Handles

A viral alert warns that evildoers are exposing innocent victims to the AIDS virus by attaching HIV-contaminated needles to gas pump handles. This is a long-discredited hoax that has been circulating since 2000 but continues to crop up years and even decades later. The samples of the hoax postings are included for your comparison. If you receive a similar warning via email or social media, you can safely ignore it. Its best not to continue circulating this hoax. Description: Internet hoax via email and social mediaCirculating since: June 2000Status: False Example Email contributed by R. Anderson, June 13, 2000: Please read and forward to anyone you know who drives. My name is Captain Abraham Sands of the Jacksonville, Florida Police Department. I have been asked by state and local authorities to write this email in order to get the word out to car drivers of a very dangerous prank that is occurring in numerous states. Some person or persons have been affixing hypodermic needles to the underside of gas pump handles. These needles appear to be infected with HIV positive blood. In the Jacksonville area alone there have been 17 cases of people being stuck by these needles over the past five months. We have verified reports of at least 12 others in various states around the country. It is believed that these may be copycat incidents due to someone reading about the crimes or seeing them reported on the television. At this point no one has been arrested and catching the perpetrator(s) has become our top priority. Shockingly, of the 17 people who where stuck, eight have tested HIV positive and because of the nature of the disease, the others could test positive in a couple years. Evidently the consumers go to fill their car with gas, and when picking up the pump handle get stuck with the infected needle. IT IS IMPERATIVE TO CAREFULLY CHECK THE HANDLE of the gas pump each time you use one. LOOK AT EVERY SURFACE YOUR HAND MAY TOUCH, INCLUDING UNDER THE HANDLE. If you do find a needle affixed to one, immediately contact your local police department so they can collect the evidence. ********* PLEASE HELP US BY MAINTAINING A VIGILANCE AND BY FORWARDING THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO DRIVES. THE MORE PEOPLE WHO KNOW OF THIS THE BETTER PROTECTED WE CAN ALL BE. ********** Social Media Posting As posted on Facebook, Jan. 26, 2013: HIV/AIDS Needles hidden under gas pumps In Florida and other places on the East Coast a group of people are putting HIV/AIDS infected and filled needles underneath gas pump handles so when someone reaches to pick it up and put gas in their car, they get stabbed with it. 16 people have been a victim of this crime so far and 10 tested HIC positive. Instead of posting that stupid crap about how your love life will suck for years to come of you dont re-post, post this. Its important to inform people, even if you dont drive, a family member might, and what if they were next? CHECK UNDER THE HANDLE BEFORE YOU GRAB IT!!! IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE! Analysis of Viral Warnings On June 20, 2000, mere days after the overwrought warning above first slammed inboxes across the Internet, the Jacksonville Sheriffs Department issued a press release declaring it a hoax. The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office has had no reports of such incidents and there is no Capt. Abraham Sands at the JSO, the statement said. Nor had any such incidents been reported elsewhere in the United States. Moreover, according to the CDC, there are no documented cases of HIV being transmitted via needle-sticks in non-health care settings, ever. The viral warning was, and is, entirely fictitious. It did add an interesting new wrinkle to the HIV needle-stick rumors already circulating online in various forms since 1997. Previous variants warned of tainted syringes planted in movie theater seats and pay phone coin slots, not to mention random stealth prickings (for lack of a better phrase) in nightclubs and other crowded public places. Copycat Pranks All these variants have been investigated and deemed false by authorities with the sole exception of a spate of apparent copycat pranks that occurred around the beginning of 1999 in western Virginia. According to police there, actual hypodermic needles were found in the coin slots of public phones and bank night deposit slots in a couple of small towns in the area. None were found to be contaminated with HIV or any other biological agent. Presumably, the pranksters were imitating rumors that had already been circulating online for months. Groundless though it may be, the conviction that unknown assailants are intentionally spreading AIDS by hiding contaminated needles in public places remains popular, especially on the email forwarding circuit. One reason is that these tales and other urban legends like them provide an outlet for unspoken fears—of strangers, of the motives of some of the more marginal members of society, of AIDS itself. Theyre cautionary tales, albeit ones that dont really function as such—not literally, at any rate—in that they fail to address the primary way HIV is actually transmitted: unsafe sex. Personal Risk By virtue of the fact that each of these fictitious scenarios depicts the transmission of HIV via acts of penetration, each works as a metaphor for sex. Consider the claim that one risks exposure to HIV simply by inserting ones finger into the coin slot of a public phone. The imagery isnt pretty, but its apt. Now were being warned to be careful when pumping gas, to take all due precautions before sliding the nozzle into the tank. Sound advice? Metaphorically speaking, yes! CDC Statement This statement appeared on the CDC.gov site in 2010. Have people been infected with HIV from being stuck by needles in non-health care settings? No. While it is possible to get infected with HIV if you are stuck with a needle that is contaminated with HIV, there are no documented cases of transmission outside of a health-care setting. CDC has received inquiries about used needles left by HIV-infected injection drug users in coin return slots of pay phones, the underside of gas pump handles, and on movie theater seats. Some reports have falsely indicated that CDC confirmed the presence of HIV in the needles. CDC has not tested such needles nor has CDC confirmed the presence or absence of HIV in any sample related to these rumors. The majority of these reports and warnings appear to be rumors/myths. Sources CDC. HIV Transmission: Questions Answers. Centers for Disease Control. 25 Mar. 2010.Chapin, Veronica. â€Å"Calls About Email Hoax Flood Sheriffs Office.† Florida Times-Union.McKenzie, Aline. HIV Hoax Pumps Up the Fear of Infection. Dallas Morning News, 26 May 2001.Sun Media. Infected Needles Tale a Hoax. London Free Press, 22 Mar. 2007.