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Police condemn abduction hoax in Shoreham and Worthing

12:13pm Tuesday 30th March 2010 in


Police have condemned a hoax text message warning people of abductions in supermarkets.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said today: "Police are urging the public not to pass on details of a current text which is circulating around the Adur district, warning about attempted abductions of children in Tesco and Marks and Spencer.

"This hoax has been circulated to around 100 people claiming there have been up to 11 attempted abductions at Tesco and Marks and Spencer in the Holmbush Centre, Shoreham, and at Tesco in Durrington.

Sussex Police are investigating the claims and the origins of the text.

"Tesco head office has received reports of similar hoaxes in their stores in Scotland and in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and Kent."

Comments(6)

cheezburger says...
1:36pm Tue 30 Mar 10

Im sure people pass them on trying to be well meaning, but its just the same as numerous chain emails warning you about this and that. Personally i would never pay attention to a text like that in the first place, but the gullible might. Snopes FTW!

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Uge says...
2:14pm Tue 30 Mar 10

Someone I know saw Police looking for potential child abductors at Tesco Holmbush a few weeks ago, so there maybe some truth
to this text message. It maybe a case of 'Chinese text whispers', saying that though you would think that the police would
have stated this to The Evening Argus that there was an incident and this was where the issue potentially came from.
I think we have a right as people and parents to know if things like this happen, prevention is better than cure!
I would say be extra vigilant with your kids until the truth is known.

As for individuals that state they would ignore this type of text message (cheezburger) if you have children and live within 3 miles
of the Holmbush centre you would not simply ignore this !

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Luke72 says...
4:22pm Tue 30 Mar 10

I've got 2 kids and often go to Holmbush. If I were to recieve this warning (though thank godness my friends aren't gullible enough to have fallen for it) I'd check it out for myself before sending it on. An attempted child abduction is BOUND to be reported somewhere, especially 11 attempts. All it takes is a google search to check the validity of it rather than scaremongering people.

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Big Nasty says...
5:01pm Tue 30 Mar 10

The type of kids you get at Durrington the abductors would want to give back very quickly.........

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bibble says...
6:41pm Tue 30 Mar 10

Here's a hoax for you: Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, and they can be used in 45 minutes.
.
Why do the police not do something useful and look into that?

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tombraider59 says...
9:15am Wed 31 Mar 10

And there are some kids that you wish could be abducted and NEVER returned!!!!

Bliss!

;-)

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