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Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house, out pops another breathless piece of scarelore warning us about a new appearance of that bogeyman of our era, AIDS. (A cousin to this scare has to do with deliberate infection of young people who are stabbed with contaminated needles by anonymous assailants at movie theatres and dance clubs. See our Pin Prick Attacks page for more about this related legend.) This time it's drug addicts placing their used, HIV-laden needles into pay phone coin slots in order to stab (and infect) hapless, innocent victims who want nothing more than to retrieve a coin or two and receive death sentences for their troubles. (Drug addicts have been using syringes and needles for decades — you have to wonder why they didn't start leaving them in Pepsi cans and pay phone coin slots until after AIDS came to world-wide attention.) We're told that this isn't a tale from some hearsay urban legend source, but rather from phone company workers, through the EMT instructor. In other words, the one and only source for this warning is an unnamed EMT instructor somewhere who heard it from an unidentified telephone company workers somewhere. You can't beat that as a reliable source ... Examples: To date, there are no known instances of contaminated needles turning up in pay phone coin returns, let alone an unsuspecting telephone user's being infected by one. We have been looking at all of our phones and have not found a single instance of where this has happened, Bell Atlantic spokesman Cliff Lee said in a November 1998 article in The Buffalo News. A December 1998 article in the Chicago Tribune stated: On 9 February 1999 two people were injured in Pulaski, Virginia, when they put their fingers into the coin return slots of pay telephones and were jabbed by (uncontaminated) needles left in those slots. The next day, four hypodermic needles were found — wrapped in cotton, thus not presenting much of a danger to anyone — in post office mail slots and a night deposit box in nearby Wythe County. No one was infected or seriously injured in those incidents. Did the legend come true? We doubt it. You see, six days earlier the major newspaper of that area carried an article about this very legend, exposing it as a hoax. Most likely a prankster or two read it and decided to pull some legs. On 29 October 2009 a student at Middle State Tennessee University was stuck by a hypodermic needle after reaching into the change dispenser of a Pepsi machine located on campus. She was treated at Middle Tennessee Medical Center and later released. Police are examining the syringe. A second syringe was discovered on 4 November 2009 in a Vitamin Water vending machine at that college's student center. No one was injured in that incident. In 2000, some thoughtful soul re-worked the original scare about coin returns on pay phones into one focused on a variety of vending machines and set it in Canada: Despite the forceful claims made in this later version of the AIDS needle found in coin return scare, there have not been any such incidents in Edmonton, Calgary, or any other Canadian cities. Moreover, officials of the University of Lethbridge (Alberta) have been bedeviled by inquiries about this story since it first appeared on the Internet. All who have asked have been told the same thing: There haven't been any such attacks on their campus. (A February 2009 report about three people pricked by hidden hypodermic needles taped to doorknobs and a payphone in Vancouver, Washington, is still under investigation.) This newer version of the AIDS needle found in coin return tale incorporates the AIDS announcement note motif of the earliest AIDS urban legend, the venerable AIDS Mary. (Fellow who foolishly invites woman he doesn't know to spend the night wakes to find her gone and Welcome to the world of AIDS scrawled in lipstick on his bathroom mirror.) This same motif is used in the later dance club versions of the Pin-Prick Attacks legend. (Girl dancing at popular nightclub feels a small prick on her arm, then finds the note stuffed into her pocket, taped to her back, or pressed into her hand.) A few facts and common sense tips: Additional information: Health Related Hoaxes and Rumors (Centers for Disease Control)
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