Urban legend?

[+ purplekow]

This story was told to me as true and was supposed to have happened this week. It is apocryphal, I believe, but has anyone heard it before or a similar story.

 

The sister-in-law of my friend is a teacher of autistic children here in the garden state. A class trip was arranged with 12 children and 8 supervising adults to the local aquarium. At the end of a long day, one of the children is missing and the teacher is panicky. Realizing that the missing child was the most regimented of the children, the teacher returns to the bus and sees the slightly dissheveled child rocking in a seat on the bus. Relieved, she goes and gets the other children and parents. The ride home is particularly noisy and all the children seem a bit more animated than usual. Thinking that she owes the mother of the boy who was missing an explanation of the days events, and knowing the mother to be none too bright, she writes the mother a note telling what happened and giving her phone number at home should there be a problem. The teacher pins the note to the student.

 

Soon after dinner the mother calls the teacher and thanks her for the note. She tells her that everything with her son is fine. Before she hangs up the mother asks: What should I do with the penguin in the backpack.

 

The police were called and the penguin returned.

 

So, thoughts. Real story or urban legend?

[+ deej]

http://www.snopes.com/critters/farce/smuggled.asp

[+ purplekow]

Wow that was quick. Thanks for the reference. Amusing story but a bit unbelievable.

[+ deej]

snopes.com is the first stop, and usually the last stop, in checking out these "true stories". Some of them actually end up being true! But darned few.

 

I went to snopes.com and typed "returned penguin" in the search box. The link I posted was the first hit.

 

Always do a snopes search before forwarding those "real" sounding emails. Your friends will thank you. :-)

[+ Tygerscent]

Hmmmm... I think the article is erronious. The version I heard was that the child was returned to the zoo and placed in the penguin pen and turns out to be a really good swimmer and loves to eat raw fishes. The penguin on teh other hand, turns out to be really good at math and is leading the class with an exceptional grade opint average. Children at the school were noted as saying... "Really wild feet and he dresses really cool". The penguin was a bit overwrought the first few days saying he felt like "a fish out of water" and was worried other students would make fun of his height.

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