NAME.....Infected Needles
CODE.....CR1707
ORIGIN...USA, 1930s
STATUS...False

Infected Needles Version 1

During the school holidays, a group of girls went to see a film at their local cinema. When one of the girls sat down into her seat, she felt something sharp poking into her. She immediately jumped up and found a syringe placed into the fold of the chair. Tied to the end of the syringe was a note with this message written on it, 'WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD'.

The girl was rushed to the nearest hospital, and the syringe was immediately taken away to be tested. The results were, as the doctors had feared; the syringe needle was infected with HIV Positive.

Worryingly, this was not the first incident of its kind, and no doubt will not be the last. Please be extra careful before sitting down at the cinema.

Infected Needles Version 2

Certain gangs are targeting clubbers with a unique and vicious hate campaign. Each member carries a wad of stickers, the stickers are round, yellow, and have the message 'Welcome To The Real World' written on them. The gang choose their victims at random, and once selected, a member sticks a sticker on the unaware clubber. The stickers are filled with minute needles infected with HIV Positive.

Many incidents have happened at nightclubs and bars all over the country, and the victims are truly chosen at random. Clubbers need to take extra care, especially when dancing within a crowded area.

Summary

The legend spans across a time scale of at least 70 years. The original versions are dated back to the early 1930's, and are similar to Version 1. The early versions were also based in Movie Theatres (cinemas), with the only real difference being the reason for being jabbed with a needle. In Version 1, the needle is maliciously left to deliberately infect a person with the deadly AIDS virus. AIDS was not known in the 1930's, so there was another sinister reason for being jabbed with a needle. In the 1930's, New Orleans, young girls were warned to beware of the 'Needle Man'. A man would sit either side of their young victim in the cinema; one man would then inject morphine into the young girl. Once the young girl was sedated, the two men would carry her out and she would be sold into slavery.

Version 1 originated from the late 1980's, when AIDS became a world epidemic. The media and the governments ran huge awareness campaigns to warn of the dangers of this killer disease. Of course, UL's thrive and feed from paranoia, mutating with the fears of the time. Version 1 is probably a merger of two UL's. The original 1930's version (which has already been discussed) and AIDS Mary, which will be discussed later.

Dance music exploded onto the scene in the 1990's, bringing with it the 'clubbing' culture. Raves were rampant in Britain during the early 1990's, and drugs were closely associated with it. Version 2 incorporates this new culture, and serves as a warning to clubbers to be careful. It also acts as a deterrent to keep people away from clubs. When this particular version was thriving during 1998, clubs were reporting a loss of revenue of up to 50%; people were simply staying away.

These versions of the legend thrive because of the fear everyone has for AIDS. The paranoia of the 1980's has died down, but everyone still knows the deadly danger of becoming HIV Positive.

Final Thoughts

Although the status of the UL is false, similar incidents have occurred over the years. In 1989, a group of teenagers (mainly girls) went on a terror spree in New York City, jabbing pins into the necks of females at random. They attacked 41 women in this way before they were caught. The main concern was that the pins might have been infected with HIV, this concern proved fruitless. The gang's reason for doing this was that it was a bit of a laugh, and just a game to them.

A similar incident happened on Rhode Island (US) in 1997, two medical students jabbed 32 of their colleagues in the arm for a prank (nice friends!).
In 1999, a woman in Maryland (US) was attacked at a petrol station. A man approached her and demanded money. She told him that she only had a dollar. He told her that would do, and pulled his arm around her and kissed her on her cheek. He then pricked her with a needle and said "Welcome to reality, you have HIV". The woman was not infected.

A big problem nowadays is that robbers are using (supposedly) HIV infected needles to threat and rob people. In Britain this is such a problem that there are calls for law to be changed, so that people convicted of these crimes will receive harsher penalties. After all, the physiological effect on the victims must be immense.