Gang warning hoax sweeps nation; Impacts Moncks Corner, Myrtle Beach

Image by Background image by Flickr user William HookImage by 20090321-text.jpg

A text message hoax has been sweeping that nation, warning people to stay away from their local Wal-Mart.

Variants of that message include: "Gang initiates must assault or kill a woman, child or elderly person at a Wal-mart," and "do not go to wal-mart tonight. gang initiation to shoot 3 women. not sure what wal-mart and confirmed on TV."

Locally the text message impacted Moncks Corner and Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach's police attempted to inform residents of the message's hoax nature, while Moncks Corner's police were not aware that it was a hoax and took the message more seriously.

And although the text message campaign gripped much of the nation this week, the Wal-Mart gang threat has been floating around since at least 2005.