Near-Miss Urban Legends
First published 10/14/1999

Some near-miss urban legends:

A young babysitter is left alone for the first time with three children. She has just put them to bed and is watching TV when the phone rings. She hears a menacing voice on the other end of the line: "Have you checked on the children?"

The babysitter hangs up immediately and, at first, doesn't think much of it. But, soon, the phone rings again. "Have you checked on the children?" Now, the babysitter is getting upset. She calls the operator and arranges to have a trace put on the line.

When the phone rings a third time and the mysterious voice repeats the same message, she hangs up immediately and waits for the operator to call back with the trace. Sure enough, mere moments later she answers the phone only to hear an urgent plea: "Get out of the house now! There's a gas leak!"

A woman goes on a two-week vacation in Mexico and falls in love with a tiny puppy she finds at the market. Not wanting to bother with the paperwork involved in bringing it across the border, she smuggles the pet through customs.

Once she's got it back home, however, she finds it doesn't seem to be thriving, no matter which kind of puppy food she feeds it. Concerned, she takes it to the vet -- only to discover that her so-called "Mexican dog" is in fact REALLY FROM FRANCE!

A group of junior high school girls skip school one afternoon to go see a matinee. As they take their seats, one of them feels a slight scraping against her back, but thinks nothing of it.

After the movie is over, however, and she gets up to leave, she discovers a hypodermic syringe jammed into the theatre seat, along with a note: "Congratulations -- you've just been inoculated against diphtheria!"

The police are circulating a memo warning people not to flash their headlights at any passing cars driving at night with their lights off. It seems young kids who want to join gangs must go through a new initiation: they deliberately drive around with their headlights off, and when the first passing car flashes them, they follow that car home and do errands and favors for the occupant for a whole day!

Some slow-witted guy in California tried to dry off his girlfriend's poodle in the microwave -- AND IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

A young family goes abroad on their first real vacation. They have a lovely time enjoying the surf and the sand, but their trip is marred when somebody breaks into their hotel room and steals everything except for their camera and their toothbrushes.

Luckily their traveler checks are replaced, and they're able to buy new clothes and swimsuits and finish their vacation. Everything seems to be okay until they return home and go to develop their film -- at which point they are put into a labyrinth and forced to fight a minotaur!

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