We the Jury....

It's my lunch break and I'm here reporting for jury duty. There's a library next to the court building and this is where I came to access the web. They have myspace blocked off, though! What fascists! At least at my local library you can go on myspace if you please (and many do).

So I've decided to post a new blog. Mostly, I've been reading in the jury assembly room. I've also had to use the restroom a lot because I drank coffee and a bottle of "Stress Rx" tea (Arizona). In fact, even right now as I type this I know one hour will not go by before I have to use the facilities here at the library again.

I was reading a book about ULs, urban legends, and just finished the chapter about cars. There are a lot of scary stories about cars and weirdos. It's got me freaked out even though I know those stories are not true. I start school next week and will be getting out at 10 pm and will be parked in a mall parking lot. A lot of those urban legends take place in mall parking! One such story has a woman realizing she has a flat and a helpful man offering to help, if only she will drive him back to his car. She goes back into the mall to talk to Security and the officer tells her that the tire has been slashed purposely. The man who would have "helped" her has left behind a briefcase with duct tape, tire iron, etc.

As I said, the story is not true but I know for a FACT that real-life serial killer Ted Bundy used ruses like that to abduct his female victims. He would use a cast on his leg or arm, ask for help with his school books (he looked like a university student) and once the girl is putting his books into his VW bug, Bundy has beat her over the head with a tire iron he has stashed behind one of the tires and she's done for.

In another legend in the book, we have a woman leaving work to find an elderly woman sitting in her backseat. It's cold and raining and the woman explains she's stranded and needs a ride. Feeling sorry for her, the woman goes back inside the office to call her husband so he won't worry about her and is firmly warned not to give rides to strangers. Instead, the husband says, she should alert Security. She does and is told to call police. Police arrive and arrest the elderly "woman", who is really an axe murderer in disguise.

Again, NOT a true story, but word to the wise: If you are a woman, you might feel safer giving a ride to or taking a ride from another woman, but this can be a dangerous proposition. In a totally true story (which I often repeat to women in my life who tend toward trusting women or men with women for rides), a young girl hitches a ride with a man because he has his wife and baby in the car with him. Little does she know that he is a sadist who has been tormenting his wife for so long that she can no longer take the abuse and is helping find a surrogate. The unfortunate hitchhiking co-ed becomes the victim of one of the most horrific crimes I've ever heard. Totally true, you can look it up! The worst part of this girl's ordeal is that he keeps her in a coffin-like box and only takes her out for his perverted wants. She is a sex slave and a prisoner for about seven years before she is set free by the guilt-ridden wife. Look it up, "Girl in the Box"!

One story I think about whenever I get in my car at home is the one about the boyfriend who goes for a can of gas and never returns. His girlfriend hears scratching on the roof all night. When police come to the rescue, she is led out of the car and told, "Don't look back!" but like Lot's wife in the Bible, she does. She doesn't become a pillar of salt, however, instead she becomes sick when she sees her beau hanging from a tree upside down, his fingernails doing the "scratching". The reason I think of it is that we have a gigantic tree at home and it's numerous branches are becoming so overgrown that there's one that scratches the roof of my car. Ever so-softly and eerily.

Finally, in a "legend" scenario of my own, I once told my best friend about the hot guy who offered me a ride in his red sports car only to learn that she'd encountered a similar (the same?) guy herself. The weird and scary part of it is we were both in junior high at the time. So it's a sinister thing when a cute guy in a "rad" car is actually a pervert who wants to kidnap tweens. Am I right?