Dave Lieber 
Internet turns Rowlett mom's e-mail into a national concern - and a hoax
Star-Telegram staff writer
For a week, she was one of the most famous mothers in the state, possibly the nation. People everywhere knew her name, the company where she works, what she writes about and cares about.
It was attention she hated.
It all started when she received an e-mail from another mother about a little dust-up in late March not far from her house in Rowlett. Some teenagers were in cars, and the cars had bumped on the road.
The mother took the e-mail, added a few comments of her own, put her name and company on the bottom, and forwarded it to an e-mail group she calls "the Mommy network."
Somehow, though, that e-mail left the Mommy network and shot across the Internet stratosphere. People read it by the thousands. Some called her to talk about it. The police called her, too. She was quite easy to find. There, on the bottom of each e-mail are her name and company.
When I called the company and asked for her, I was quickly connected to her desk.
She won't let me share her name, mostly because she's too embarrassed by the attention. But actually, it's already too late for Mrs. X, as I'll call her.
I sent my version of the e-mail (a friend sent it to my wife, who sent it to me) back to Mrs. X so she could see what the Internet hath wrought.
She recognized only about half of it. Somebody had added a few things. Other portions were deleted. But she was still listed as the author.
The e-mail states:
"New gang initiation ... They bump your car. You stop; they shoot you. This started last night (3/26/2008). Warn your family and friends. Letters are being passed out today in North Dallas schools."
The next paragraph quotes Mrs. X's original contact but makes it look as if Mrs. X writes it: "OMG! This happened to my 16 year old last night. She was followed closely, honked at and bumped all the way from the Firewheel mall area into our Rowlett neighborhood. She was hysterical when she got home."
The note is signed by Mrs. X, who, by the way, doesn't have a daughter. But facts aren't getting in the way of this. "There has been so much hoopla," she says.
As the e-mail spread, people grew concerned. The Rowlett and Garland police departments received calls from the public asking for information. Both departments investigated the e-mail's origins and the "facts" contained in it.
Garland police say they found a female whose car was bumped. But it wasn't serious, and the incident was never reported. When police learned the details, they quickly determined that it wasn't gang-related.
"Myth," a Garland police spokesman said. "There never was any stop. There never was a gun pulled."
Rowlett police say they looked in their city logs for incidents that could be related and found nothing that matches.
But it doesn't matter.
Snopes.com, the authoritative Web site on urban legends, reports that a new version of the legendary gang "car bump" story emerged in e-mails -- nationally -- on March 26, the same date cited in the Mrs. X e-mail.
This is an oldie but goody: Gang "initiates would be randomly choosing innocent victims and gunning them down as a way of gaining entry into gangs," Snopes writes.
Mrs. X says she was "cautioning parents to caution kids. But the entire top part of my e-mail got deleted."
She sticks to the thrust of her story, though, about the teenagers bumping cars in her neighborhood: "That is an accurate story."
But then the natural law of the Internet took over. Bounce-back on the Web about the e-mail's authenticity began appearing.
NBC5i.com (KXAS/Channel 5) quoted a Fort Worth police spokesman saying the matter is an "urban legend." D magazine's blog quoted a Dallas police sergeant offering the same explanation.
The best reporting is on Garland Councilman Doug Athas' blog. He researched what happened and printed a statement from Garland Police Chief Mitch Bates: "We have confirmed through our Garland police sources and through the Dallas PD Gang Unit (as well as other law enforcement sources) that these rumors are completely false."
Athas wrote: "We might all be subject of fewer hoaxes if more recipients would take a skeptical moment to check the more outrageous claims in some e-mails at Snopes.com before forwarding," the elected official scolds. Quite correctly.
He closed with: "But then I'd only get half as many e-mails from my brother!"
Watch what you write and whom you send it to.
The Watchdog column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Dave Lieber, 817-685-3830
