On April 15, 1954, Bellingham, Seattle and other Washington
communities in the United States are in the grip of a strange phenomenon --
tiny holes, pits, and dings start appearing in the windshields of cars.
Initially the Bellingham police department believed that the damage was caused
by teen vandals using BB guns, but the pitting soon spread to Sedro Wooley and
Mount Vernon, towns up to 30 miles south of Bellingham. Roadblocks were erected
and all cars and passengers were searched but to no avail. The vandal's theory
took a hit when the pits were found in the windshields of cars at the secure
Whidbey Island Naval Station. Over 70 marines commissioned a search of the
entire station but could find nothing no signs of a break in. Within 24 hours
over 2,000 cars had been reported damages at distances 50 miles from each
other. It became clear that this could not be the work of mere vandals. It also
became clear that the epidemic was moving south, towards the major town of
Seattle.
On the morning of April 16th, the newspapers carried news of
the northern events to the residents of Seattle. by that afternoon the reports
of pitting attacks were coming in. Everyone from domestic car owners to parking
lots to second hand car stores to police cars themselves were effected.
Vandalism ruled out, more disturbing theories began to be voiced, Sheriff Tom
Clark suggested it was the effect of H-bomb tests in the South Pacific, Geiger
metres were run over the windshields but responded negatively, further theories
included cosmic ray damage, sand flea eggs, a shift in the earth's magnetic
field or maybe, just maybe gremlins.
Seattle Mayor Allan Pomeroy wired both Governor Arthur
Langlie and the President, Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower:
"What appeared to be a localized outbreak of vandalism
in damaged auto windshields and windows in the northern part of Washington
State has now spread throughout the Puget Sound area... Urge appropriate federal (and state) agencies
be instructed to cooperate with local authorities on emergency basis."
Finally the University of Washington sent a committee of
scientists to survey 84 of the pitted cars and found the damage to be
"over emphasized and said they were
probably the result of normal driving conditions, the fact that all pits were
found on the front rather than the back windscreen lent weight to their
conclusion,
Nevertheless, the King County Sheriff's department conducted
their own "tests" on pellets that they claimed were found near some
of the pitted cars, their report claims that these pellets reacted violently
when a lead pencil was placed next to them, but not when a ballpoint pen was.
Right..
The case was closed when the Seattle Police Dept. showed
that in "attacks" the older cars had pits and the new ones, simply
due to their nonuse, did not. The pits had been there all along, just nobody
had noticed, if you haven't already pop on out to your car and have a look,
there's probably a pit or two. (Please don't go examine someone else's car,
trying to explain what you're doing will probably make you look mad).
This is a textbook (literally) example of what behavioural
economists call collective delusion, or collective nudging to go by the work of
Thaler and Sunstein.
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