Urban legends are usually nothing more than a scary story that travels through word of
mouth. You’ve all probably heard about Candy Man or the Jersey Devil. Now, while those
stories are nothing more than pure fiction, there are some urban legends that turn out
to be absolutely true. Keeping that in mind, I’ve come up with 10 urban legends that
can be linked to true events. So buckle up, because things are about to get bumpy.
How’s it going YouTube? I’m your host, Landon Dowlatsingh and welcome back to another
most amazing video. For parts one and two of this series - click right over here and
be sure to check out our urban legend playlist to satisfy your scary needs. Alright, let’s
get down to business, this is the top 10 scary urban legends that are actually true - part
3. Oh and you might want to make sure your door is locked and your light is on because
things are about to get pretty scary.
Kicking things off in at number 10 we have the Impersonating police officers. There is
an old urban legend that has been circulating for quite some time now about people who would
dress up as police officers, pull people over and kidnap or abduct them. This sounds absolutely
terrifying because it’s true. There have been reports of people dressing up as police
officers so that they can attack their victims who have let their guard down. In Illinois,
a man used flashlights to get a woman to pull over. But after he walked over to her car,
he tried to overpower her but thankfully they got away. So basically, you should always
be cautious when you’re driving alone at night and whenever a police officer pulls
you over. If you don’t see a legitimate badge, then you could be the next victim of
this scary urban legend.
A corpse rotting the water supply makes it onto our list in at number 9. So you know
how sometimes when you’re staying in a hotel, motel or Holiday Inn - the water might either
smell or taste weird, but you still brush your teeth anyways. Well this next urban legend
will make you want to reconsider. That’s because a story about a d body floating in
the water supply is responsible for making the water turn brown or taste off. But as
it turns out, this is more than just a story, this stuff actually happens. Back in 2013,
guests staying at a Los Angeles hotel were complaining that there was a terrible smell
coming from the water. So finally management decided to check the water tank and to their
surprise they found the body of a 21 year old woman floating inside. It’s estimated
that her body had been there for over two weeks. BRB i’m going to go disinfect my
entire body.
Next on our list at number 8 we have Medication being laced with poison. According to this
urban legend, our over the counter medication might have had some added ingredients that
weren’t on the label. Apparently some people used to lace Tylenol with potassium cyanide
which is an extremely deadly poison. After several people died, these deaths were known
as the Tylenol Murders. So you know how over the counter medication now has those tamper
proof seals, well it’s because this urban legend turned out to be true and a lot of
people died so the FDA had to step up their game.
Escalators and chopped off feet slice their way into number 7. Do you remember when your
parents told you to make sure that your shoes were tied before you went on an escalator?
It wasn’t just to bother you, they might have actually saved your foot. There was an
urban legend circulating around about how your shoelaces could easily get stuck inside
of the escalator and how you could get sucked in or chewed alive. Well there is some truth
to this urban legend. Every year nearly 10,000 kids are sent to the emergency room due to
escalator related injuries ranging from mangled limbs to the occasional foot amputation. Think
I’m making this up, Google it. So what’s the moral of the story here? Take the stairs
for the rest of your life.
Number 6 takes us to Snakes living in the toilet. We’ve all been scared to open the
toilet lid only to discover that an angry animal is living inside of the bowl waiting
to bite you. Well, if you’ve never been scared or checked the toilet bowl before sitting
down - you’re definitely going to start checking now. That’s because there are so
many stories about people finding strange animals hanging out in their toilet water.
Someone found a 5.5 long snake, another person found a family of rats and someone actually
saw a possum. Just when you thought you were in the privacy of your own bathroom, an animal
could be lurking in the water, waiting to make its move.
Losing your arm during tug of war could actually be a thing and this takes us to number 5.
When we were younger, parents used to tell us that if we were too intense during a game
of Tug-Of-War we might lose our hands, fingers or even our entire arm. Of course we would
just brush off those cautionary tales but this terrifying urban legend is actually true.
There are tons of reports about adults and children losing their limbs while playing
this game. You know how some people wrap the rope around their wrists to help them win?
Well they are actually putting themselves in a lot of danger because it is so much easier
to lose a hand this way. If all of these reports are true, why the heck are we still playing
this game? I’m pretty sure no one even likes playing tug-of-war...especially if you’re
in the front and you’re the one who falls in the mud.
And now in at number 4, Using corpses as decoration. With Halloween coming up, you might want to
take a closer look at some of your neighbors decorations or the decorations in a haunted
house, because they could be real corpses disguised as fake dead bodies. According to
the urban legend, some carnivals would run out of paper mache so instead of wasting all
of their time making new ones, they would find a dead body and hang it in their haunted
house in order to scare their customers. Well, this actually happened back in the 70’s.
A criminal was embalmed and put on display for others to see. People would pay 5 cents
to see the corpse by dropping a nickel into his mouth. But one day two people who claimed
to be the dead criminal’s brother, took his corpse and hung him in their fun house.
People passing through the house didn’t suspect that a real corpse was hanging from
the ceiling until one day someone went to move it and his rotting arm fell off.
The government using deceased children and this scary urban legend brings us to number
3. There was speculation going around during that the US government was illegal testing
on corpses. A lot of people thought that this was just a rumor going around, but like everything
else on this list - it turned out to be true. Apparently the US wanted to test how nuclear
radiation would effect human flesh. Since they couldn’t get any volunteers for their
research, what a shocker- they used deceased children. This was known as project sunshine
but there was nothing gleeful from this experiment. This is incredibly morbid and super unethical
and the parents weren’t even notified that their children’s bodies were being experimented
on.
Another Halloween prank comes onto this list in at number 2. This is an urban legend about
a teenager performing in a Halloween show. He really wanted to have a grande finale so
at the end of his act, he was going to pretend to hang himself in front of everybody, but
he ended up actually hanging himself and died because everyone thought it was a trick. Well
sadly enough, there is truth to this urban legend and its happened more than once. People
have been trying to replicate this stunt but somehow they forgot to not actually kill themselves.
I’m just spitballing here, but if I was performing a trick like this, I would definitely
take some precautions. For one, I wouldn’t put the rope that is tied to a noose around
my neck.
The dead body in the mattress tops this list in
at number 1. This is a very popular urban legend about a motel guest complaining about
an overwhelming stench coming from his room. So when they did some investigating they found
a dead body in his mattress. Well brace yourselves, because this happens in real life and it happens
a lot more than you think. I did a quick google search and came across a ton of headlines
about dead bodies hidden in hotel rooms. So the next time that you’re in a hotel and
you think that your mattress is a little too firm or lumpy, you can probably be certain
that a corpse is stuffed inside. No seriously, we have a real problem on our hands. And I
think I’m going to sleep on the floor from now on.
Well there you guys have it...