These urban legends are so pervasive you probably heard at least one if not all of them. They’ve been repeated for decades but none of them are true. Nonetheless, they are spooky tales that make you think!
10. Dogs & Microwaves
This legend involves an old lady who needs to dry her dog, most often a poodle. The addled senior citizen decides the quickest route to drying off fluffy after a bath is to put the pooch in the microwave. The result is… well, you can imagine it if you really want to. Though it sounds horrific, there is no evidence this has ever happened.
9. Alligators in the Sewer System
This tale usually involves the sewer system of New York City. The claim is that people flushed their baby alligators (assumed to have been picked up on travels to Florida) down the toilet and now the sewer system is teaming with wild, roaming gators. However, it’s unlikely gators could survive the cold of New York. That’s if the toxic bacterial stew that exists in NYC sewers didn’t kill them first.
8. Tainted Needles
This legend claims that drug addicts jammed their old needles in coin-return slots of public payphones (or other vending machines). A hapless victim comes along and gets jabbed by an infected needle. A variation on this involves the sand of children’s playgrounds. However, no reports to confirm that any of these situations have happened.
7. Organ Theft
In this legend, a victim has an organ stolen, typically a kidney. Someone awakes in a bathtub full of ice, and a note telling them not to move but to call an ambulance immediately. There are many variations on the victims of this tale, whether a business traveler or student. In 1997, organ donor groups debunked this legend.
6. Rat Urine
The fact that this legend is plausible makes it all the more powerful. In this tale, a store clerk drinks a soda and dies from toxic rat urine that was encrusted on the rim of the can. While the CDC confirms it’s theoretically possible, they deny that such an event involving canned soda ever happened and is highly unlikely.
5. Human Spider Nests
This legend ran rampant with bouffant hairdos in the 1950s. According to the tale, a woman died a mysterious death. Doctors later discovered, unknown to her, that she had been killed by a colony of spiders living in her nest of hair. This legend sometimes reemerges in a modified form with the victim sporting dreadlocks.
4. Pop Rocks
Pop rocks were a popular candy in the 70s and 80s with tiny gas bubbles that popped while eating. A legend claimed that if you consumed the candy with a carbonated drink it would explode in your stomach. The company showed the public tests proving otherwise. However, the untrue tale was so pervasive that the company had little success eradicating the legend.
3. Disappearing Hitchhiker
This urban legend goes back to the horse and buggy times. The passenger is often a young girl. When the driver reaches the destination, the girl has disappeared from the backseat. The driver discovers his passenger had died several years earlier. The chilling aspects of the tale have caused it to persist.
2. Scooped-Up Scuba Diver
In this tale, a hapless scuba diver is scooped up out of the ocean into the bucket of a fire-fighting helicopter. The diver gets dumped inland into the burning embers of a forest fire. Authorities later discover his charred body, sometimes dangling from a tree. However, more often, such helicopters scoop water from rivers or reservoirs or use fire retardants.
Read More: 10 Mythological Creatures Who Turned Out to Be Real
1. Exploding Pigeons
This legend has caused some people to ban throwing uncooked rice at their weddings. According to the tale, the uncooked rice is later consumed by pigeons. The pigeons presumably consume water, the rice expands, which causes the pigeon to explode. Experts say birds can ingest uncooked rice just fine with no ill effects.
Read More: 10 Debunked Myths Your Parents Convinced You Were Real
