The Great Seattle Windshield Pitting EpidemicStarting in Bellingham Seattle in 1954 residents began

The Great Seattle Windshield Pitting EpidemicStarting in Bellingham Seattle in 1954 residents began to notice unexplained pitting on the windshields of their cars.  Over time the problem began to grow as more and more people reported pitting on their windshields, most of which the police determined to be kid vandals with bb guns.  However, by April reports of mysterious pitting began to occur in surrounding neighborhoods.  Within a week isolated reports of windshield damage turned into mass delusion as over 3,000 people filed police reports detailing unexplained windshield pitting.  When the epidemic reached metropolitan Seattle the mass hysteria soon grew out of control.  People by the thousands went to the police and car experts to report every nick, ding, dimple, scratch, or pit that appeared on their windshields.  Wild speculation and theories abounded including secret government radio waves, sand flea eggs, gremlins, and cosmic rays.  Many others claimed that they saw pits and bubbles form right before their eyes. One newspaper even reported that a strange and unknown “gravel-like” substance could be found on roads throughout the city.On April 15th Sergeant Max Allison of the Seattle police crime laboratory stated that the pitting reports consisted of “5 per cent hoodlum-ism, and 95 per cent public hysteria.“ By April 17th reports of phantom windshield pitting had come to an end.  Today scientists and experts blame the incident as a case of “collective delusion”.  Most of the pitting cases were caused by natural forces or wear and tear, but it was only due to media hype that people began noticing windshield damage that they had not noticed before. -- source link

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