When your Aunt Edna sends you the latest Internet urban legend, it’s easy to just roll your eyes and send her to one of several Web sites that debunk these myths. It’s another thing entirely when law enforcement officers do the same thing.
Did Little Mikey of LIFE cereal fame die when he mixed Pop Rocks with soda pop? Of course not. It’s one of the most famous – and strange – urban legends out there.
Ever wonder if employees at your company are spending precious time spreading similar dubious material in e-mail chains?
It’s a time waster, but otherwise probably harmless to your company.
But that’s not the same when it comes to a police officer spreading an urban legend via official law enforcement e-mail.
A policeman in Oxfordshire, England, alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth – despite the fact that it doesn’t exist.
The false alarm came after the office sent an e-mail via a special system connecting police and schools without checking with colleagues first, according to news reports in Britain.
The old myth claims kids are drawn to the fruit flavoring in the drug, also known as Strawberry Quick.
The officer was forced to apologize, and the Oxfordshire police have promised this sort of thing will never happen again.
It’s good the police have stopped this officer in his tracks. Next, we’d expect he’d be warning the good citizens of Oxfordshire of the acute dangers of the deadly chemical dihydrogen monoxide – better known as H20, or water.
