The Mall is a scary urban legend about a madman who lurks under cars in the parking lots of busy shopping malls and slashes women’s ankles. It is also known as “The Man Under the Car”, “The Slasher Under the Car”, “The Mall Slasher” and “The Ankle Slasher”
One evening, a woman was leaving a busy shopping center. Her car was parked in a dark area of the parking lot. Carrying bags full of groceries, she walked to her car and fumbled for her keys. Suddenly, she felt a searing pain in her ankle and she fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
Just then, a man crawled out from under her car . He was clutching a bloody knife in his hand. He had cut her Achilles tendon and she lay helpless on the ground, unable to walk.
He stole her purse, her keys and her car and then drove off, leaving the poor woman screaming in pain.
In the late 1970s, this scary urban legend began to spread around America. Fears about the “mall slasher” were so acute that the police department had to set up a helpline. In the first week they received hundreds of calls. Rumors began to spread that criminal gangs were attacking women by cutting their ankles to render them helpless and then cutting off one of their limbs. They said that in order to join the gang, the criminal had to show the leader a severed limb they had taken from a victim.
However, The Slasher Under the Car is just an urban myth. Police have never come across a case like this and criminal gangs don’t do this kind of thing. You don’t have to worry about criminals lurking under your car, but you do need to be careful in mall parking lots, because there have been a few cases where women were abducted while they were getting into their cars.
Also, there was a case in 2011, when a man in Virginia was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison. They called him “The Butt Slasher”. He would sneak up behind teenage girls or young women at busy malls and shopping centers and slash their butts with a knife, before disappearing into the crowd. None of the attacks caused serious injuries, but some victims required medical attention and were left with permanent scars.
So, when you’re at the mall, you may need to WATCH YOUR BUTT!
Watch your butts