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It is only natural that a city so full of stereotypes of “sin” would bring with it a wealth of urban legends. There are so many legends circulating the city that many people have accepted these stories as fact. The truth is many of the stories are simply true stories that have taken place in hotels and cities all over the world but have unfairly been pinned on Las Vegas because of the amount of drinking and gambling that takes place on any given day.
The first myth is by far the most common and we have heard it so many times that many people in Vegas will almost swear to you that it happened to someone they knows sister, uncle, friend, etc. The story usually goes something like this: A couple enters an unknown Las Vegas hotel room after check-in and discovers a fowl odor. The husband calls the front desk and complains. Because of a convention (or some other excuse) the hotel is booked and the couple cannot switch rooms. The manager of the hotel offers to clean the room while the couple is out to try and relinquish the stench. The couple leaves for dining and gambling during the day. They return only to find that the smell is still there. Tired and feeling defeated they sleep in the room anyways. The next morning they awake to a smell that has now become unbearable. They call the front desk and ask that the manager come to the room immediately. The husband is so enraged at this point that he begins to tear the room apart in order to find the source of the smell. After lifting the mattress the husband discovers that he and his wife spent the night sleeping only inches away from the body of a dead prostitute. Ok, first the bad news: This story is true. There have been reports of not just one, but several incidents of bodies hidden in hotel rooms. The good news: It has never happened in Las Vegas (or at least never reported; there is a similar myth circulating in which the couple was paid off by the hotel to keep quiet about the occurrence). Similar incidences have been reported; however, in cities like Atlantic City, Honolulu, and Kansas City.
The second urban legend has appeared more recently. It was widely spread on the internet as an e-mail that asked business travelers to forward to other men who travel for business. The legend goes as follows: A man (in most versions he is married) meets an attractive young woman in a bar (in some versions she’s a hooker, in some she is not). The two hit it off and he invites her up to his hotel room for more drinks. Unknowingly, the woman drugs him. At the point a “gang” comes in and surgically removes his kidney and leaves the man in a bath tub of ice with a note attached to him saying “call 911 if you want to live.” The “gang” then sells the Kidney on the black market. Although, seemingly not impossible this story is false. The myth became so wide spread that the National Kidney Foundation asked anyone who has ever had a kidney illegally removed to come forward. So far no one has reported an incident.
With so many myths like these circling around, it is understandable why Vegas sometimes gets a bad rap as being dangerous. In this case the truth is stranger than fiction. Vegas is actually not the spot for strange crime occurrences. The truth is (like in the dead body myth) that things like this are more likely to take place in unsuspecting towns all across America than they are here in Sin City. The problem is that most people peg these events on Vegas because no one wants to believe it could happen where they actually live.
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