What is a good urban legend around where you live?

MONTREAL - Be wary of letting your children into ball-filled playgrounds, as the rooms containing the plastic balls are rarely cleaned. Vomit, food, feces and used syringes have been found on their floors.

Heard that one? It’s bogus, but many Montrealers believe it.

In response to that and other urban myths, the Sûreté du Québec has launched a website dedicated to debunking such legends.

The SQ was receiving several emails a week from people asking if lunatics were really placing needles contaminated with the HIV virus on movie theatre seats, or whether flashing your high beams at an oncoming car is a gang signal that might incite a violent reaction, Sgt. Joyce Kemp said.

“With the Internet and email, urban legends can travel very fast around the world,” she said.

The SQ lists 13 common urban myths on its website and urges people to consult it before panicking or sending a mass email.

“I think people love to be scared,” said George Noory, host of the syndicated overnight radio show Coast to Coast A.M., which focuses on the paranormal and conspiracies and is broadcast in Montreal on 940AM.

The urban myth is like a campfire story people tell one another for excitement, he said.

“What is so fascinating about these legends is that there is some truth to them,” Noory said.

“You’ve got to weave through them all to see which ones are true.”

Noory said he particularly enjoys stories that focus on the unexplained, like reports of ghosts that appear at intersections where an accident occurred, or the Jersey Devil, a creature that supposedly shows up before a major catastrophe.

John Robert Colombo, a Toronto-based writer who has authored more than 200 books about folklore, said an urban legend has three basic criteria: It is constantly being repeated, it varies and adapts from region to region, and it is said to be true.

Colombo said few urban legends appear to have originated in Quebec, where conspiracy theories and political anecdotes are favoured over other tall tales.

Other urban legends on the SQ’s list include the story of a girl named Ashley Flores, who is reported to have vanished. No such missing persons case exists.

Another one claims thieves give your licence plate number to car dealerships to score an extra set of your car keys – which has never happened.

If someone still can’t confirm that a story is a hoax after checking the SQ’s site and doing other research, the SQ will gladly look into it, Kemp said.