PHONY TEXT MESSAGE WARNS SHOPPERS OF RANDOM GANG VIOLENCE

Anyone who’s been to Wal-Mart after the sun goes down knows it’s a pretty sketchy place. Actually, anyone who’s been to Wal-Mart at any time knows it’s a pretty sketchy place.

So a text message warning people of a gang initiation stunt requiring the random shooting of Wal-Mart shoppers did anything but help. Thankfully, it was all a hoax.

Even more thankfully, law enforcement agencies in South Carolina were quick to respond.

Locally the text message impacted Moncks Corner and Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach’s police attempted to inform residents of the message’s hoax nature, while Moncks Corner’s police were not aware that it was a hoax and took the message more seriously. [The Digitel]

According to Snopes, this text message threat has been around since 2005.

They’ve even given it a funny name: Wal-Martyred. Not “ha, ha funny,” but “catchy funny.”

Like that time I went to the circus and asked the bearded woman, “hair are you from?” Okay, I guess that was kind of “ha, ha funny.”