Rattle snakes in Burger King ball pit?
Victoria F. Caplan
My step sister just forwarded me a message about rattle snakes in Burger
King ball pits. It seems like an urban legend to me. Please take a look.
Has anyone else heard/seen this message?
Reason I think it's an UL: no names, places, or dates given. No news
coverage.
- Tory Caplan
Subject: FW: Children
> This is important to anyone with children. Please read this and forward to anyone that has children or anyone that provides care for your child or children. This is a very serious thing and you could find yourself faced with this before you know it.
> This is a true story...
>
> About a week or so ago, a mother took her eager 3 year old son to Burger King for lunch. After they ate their lunch the mother said that the son could go and play on the playground for awhile since he ate all his lunch.
>
>
> She watched as the boy played in the tunnels, slide and in the ball-pit. The boy played for about 10 minutes when he started to whimper slightly.
> The mother asks the boy what had happened and he mearly replied, "Hurt mommy." The mother assumed that the little boy had banged his elbow or something while playing. They left to return home.
>
> A half and hour after they were home, the mother noticed some big red
> welts on the little boys arms and legs.
>
> Not being able to figure out what they were, the mother started to look at them closer. Could be red ant bites...she did not know. An hour later, the little boy died. Come to find out, when returning to Burger King to see if there were red ants in the play area, in case the little boy had an allergic reaction. Burger King employees and herself discovered that there was a family of baby rattlesnakes living underneath the balls in the ball-pit area.
>
> She has since found out that this happens more frequently than not. The snakes will crawl into the ball pit because it is dark and warm in there.
> She knows for a fact that another death has occurred because of this in South Carolina.
>
> Please use caution when letting any children play in an outside play area of a fast food restaurant, this could happen anywhere. Burger Kings are now building their play area's inside the buildings for a safer environment.
>
> ---End of forwarded mail from "*([name snipped], Teresa"
>
Viv
Victoria F. Caplan wrote
[..]
:My step sister just forwarded me a message about rattle snakes in
Burger
:King ball pits. It seems like an urban legend to me. Please take a
look.
:Has anyone else heard/seen this message?
:
:Reason I think it's an UL: no names, places, or dates given. No news
:coverage.
:
: - Tory Caplan
:<snip the verbatim "eager 3 year old" meets rattlesnakes in ball pit
hoax we know and love so well>
Yes, it's a hoax. You have good instincts. Been discussed to death
here recently. You'll find a debunking at www.snopes.com in the
"Currently Circulating" area.
Another good site to check is www.urbanlegends.com , where you will find
the AFU FAQ and the AFU archive.
A search at www.dejanews.com on "rattlesnakes" and "ball pit" will
probably tell you all the other newsgroups where this is currently being
discussed, or has been discussed in the past.
Isn't it amazing - all this Usenet discussion and so far not a single TV
report on these tragedies?
Vivienne "lurk and learn" Smythe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Bother," said Pooh. "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
phasers on the Heffalump; Piglet, meet me in transporter room three"
Ben Walsh
This is my favourite part:
>> She has since found out that this happens more frequently than not. The
snakes will crawl into the ball pit because it is dark and warm in there.
More frequently than not? The Fedgovt JBTs must be covering up hundreds of
thousands of Burger King rattlesnake deaths every year.
ben "deaths by rattlesnake, not of" w.
Wal...@dnvn.com
<her...@dalymount.com> wrote:
Yes given the natural reticence of our media and their unwillingness
to ever publish anything inflamatory, it is probably the case that
dozens of children are fatally bitten in ball pits all over the country
with NO ONE KNOWING ABOUT IT except those warned by Emails. [of course
the fact that the child is 'an eager toddler' and was being rewarded
for eating up his lunch are internal signs of the voracity of the original
message]
Oliver Jennrich
Hi folks,
in the Sunday's issue of the 'Daily Camera' (Boulder, CO) the
following variation of the 'snake theme' appeared:
<cite>
Air travel News
In Octobver, according to medical tests, Khyl Hardy, 6, was bitten by
a poisonous taipan snake [1], and he [2] and his mother say it happened when
it reached under his seat on an Ansett Airline flight from Melbourne,
Australia to Perth to retrieve a lollipop he had dropped and felt a
sting. (The snake was not found)
</cite>
Just wondering if Ansett Airline is catered by Burger King...
[1] Depending on being either a Inland taipan (oxyuranus
microlepidotus) or a Coastal taipan (oxyuranus scuttelatus) it
qualifies for either the top position or makes it number three at the
'The 10 most toxic snakes in the world'-competition...
[2] He wouldn't be able to answer, would he?
Oliver, ...it just tastes better...
--
Oliver Jennrich JILA, University of Colorado @ Boulder
Gravity. It's not just a good idea, it's the law!
lech...@uswest.net
about a popular kids amusement park called KiddieLand. Supposedly a child was
bitten by a rattlesnake while riding the merry- go- round. The snake was nested
in a horse on the carrousel. This story went on for years.
Richard Brandt
>
> When I was a kid in the in the Chicago suburbs, there was a story circulating
> about a popular kids amusement park called KiddieLand. Supposedly a child was
> bitten by a rattlesnake while riding the merry- go- round. The snake was nested
> in a horse on the carrousel. This story went on for years.
Thanks for giving us the truncated version.
Richard "A sighting AND a straight line! Let's keep this one!" Brandt
--
== Richard Brandt is at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8720/ ==
"I'm glad I'm blind and can't see it." - Stevie Wonder on the
media coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal
Glen Carter
>
> Hi All,
>
> My step sister just forwarded me a message about rattle snakes in Burger
> King ball pits. It seems like an urban legend to me. Please take a look.
> Has anyone else heard/seen this message?
>
> Reason I think it's an UL: no names, places, or dates given. No news
> coverage.
>
> - Tory Caplan
>
>
> > This is important to anyone with children. Please read this and forward to anyone that has children or anyone that provides care for your child or children. This is a very serious thing and you could find yourself faced with this before you know it.
> > This is a true story...
> >
> > About a week or so ago, a mother took her eager 3 year old son to Burger King for lunch. After they ate their lunch the mother said that the son could go and play on the playground for awhile since he ate all his lunch.
> >
> >
> > She watched as the boy played in the tunnels, slide and in the ball-pit. The boy played for about 10 minutes when he started to whimper slightly.
> > The mother asks the boy what had happened and he mearly replied, "Hurt mommy." The mother assumed that the little boy had banged his elbow or something while playing. They left to return home.
> >
> > A half and hour after they were home, the mother noticed some big red
> > welts on the little boys arms and legs.
> >
> > Not being able to figure out what they were, the mother started to look at them closer. Could be red ant bites...she did not know. An hour later, the little boy died. Come to find out, when returning to Burger King to see if there were red ants in the play area, in case the little boy had an allergic reaction. Burger King employees and herself discovered that there was a family of baby rattlesnakes living underneath the balls in the ball-pit area.
> >
> >
> > Please use caution when letting any children play in an outside play area of a fast food restaurant, this could happen anywhere. Burger Kings are now building their play area's inside the buildings for a safer environment.
> >
> > ---End of forwarded mail from "*([name snipped], Teresa"
>
> >
thread Ball pits snake pit by me.
here is a quote from Richard Gibson
giving some info about the story
_____________
Craig Pitman posted a good rebuttal of the story on Jan. 28, 1998,
in alt.folklore.urban -- DejaNews can find it for you. The title
is "Snakes in McDonald's Ball Pits." In fact, one of the earlier
versions of the story that his article cites *was* about a Burger
King, but it was said to have been heard "years ago".