A friend at work forwarded an email to me and a couple of guys about a new way of car jacking in Florida. My friend’s not the type to send a lot of random emails around so I took the time to read it. I’ve included the email:

Beware of Paper in the Back Window of Your Vehicle! New Way of Car Jacking…
Heads up everyone! Please, keep this circulating. You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. You start the engine and shift into reverse. When you look into the rearview mirror to back out of your parking space, you notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you shift into park, unlock your doors, and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view. When you reach the back of your car, that is when the car jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off. They practically mow you down as they speed off in your car And guess what, ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car. So, now, the carjacker has your car, your home address, your money, and your keys. Your home and your whole identity are now compromised!

BEWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED…. If you see a piece of paper stuck to your back window, just drive away. Remove the paper later. And be thankful that you read this e-mail. I hope you will forward this to friends and family, especially to women. A purse contains all kinds of personal information and identification documents, and you certainly do NOT want this to fall into the wrong hands. Thank you. Lieutenant Tony Bartolome Bureau of Investigations Florida Highway Patrol
Orlando, FL32859

My initial reaction was this story deserves concern and I thought I’d should share this story with my blog readers. Before publishing the story, I thought it would be wise to see if any legitimate crimes like the ones referred to in the email had actually occurred. Of course a quick Google Search lead me to a site that pointed to Snopes.com.

Snopes reported that this story is indeed an urban legend that has been going around the Internet since 2004. Snopes pointed out some good stuff to substantiate their claims about the story being false. One of the first things that caught my attention is the various locations Lieutenant Tony Bartolome has been reported to work over time with none of them being correct (though he is an actual officer). The site that lead me to Snopes also had some good points that I should of thought about. For instance, they asked the simple question of how the paper is stuck to the window, does the assailant use honey or something?

Anyway, I thought this was a fairly interesting email that documented a unique way for someone to jack your car. If you’re really worried about getting car jacked, you could always try to find a car from South Africa with a flamethrower car jacker defense mechanism. Don’t believe me, check out the story on CNN and be sure to watch the video.