Rumors of gang initiation attacks at Wal-Mart called a hoax

Authorities are calling a hoax rumors spread by text messages and the Internet that gangs will carry out violent initiations at area Wal-Mart stores.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has received text messages that gangs plan to attack women and children shopping at Wal-Mart as part of a gang initiation rite — even though there is no Wal-Mart located in the jurisdiction of the agency. The closest Wal-Marts are in Oakland and San Leandro.

Sheriff’s spokesman J.D. Nelson dismissed the story, also being circulated on the Internet, saying that such rumors pop up periodically and have always been a hoax. The details and locations vary, he said, but “every single one of them have been unfounded.”

Oakland police Capt. Tony Rachal said that as a precaution, police will have periodic patrols going by the Wal-Mart in Oakland.

Such urban legends seem to have begun in about 2005 with threats that gangs would target shoppers at big-box stores such as Wal-Mart from Washington, D.C., to Colorado. In each case, no violence occurred.

Most recently, a Web site in Santa Fe, N.M., said Thursday that authorities there were calling recent rumors of possible gang initiation violence at the Wal-Mart in the town of Espanola a hoax.