urban legend
possibly. although i do remember it being in the local papers, so maybe not. newspapers never lie.

a few years ago, marks & spencer and tesco opened a shiny giant development on the new a34 bypass between wilmslow and didsbury. it was immediately thronged with blonde yummy mummys spending their husbands' money in 4x4s that have never seen mud.

one such woman came out with her shopping to find a little old lady hovering around her car. the old lady was hunched over and looked distraught.

"oh dear," she said as the wilmslow wife approached her, "some teenage yobs were trying to break into your car, so i said i would scream for the security guards and they ran off."

"well thank you very much," said the woman gratefully. the old woman was visibly shaken. they must have been nasty young men.

"the only thing is," the old lady said, "i've missed my bus because of it. please could you give me a lift to the main road?"

"of course," the woman replied. well, what else could she say? she helped the old lady into the passenger seat, and climbed into the driver's seat herself. as she went to release the handbrake, the old lady bent down to put her handbag at her feet. and the woman noticed that she had very big, very hairy hands and wrists for an old lady.... IT WAS A MAN!

cool as a cucumber, the woman began to reverse, and then stopped.

"i'm terribly sorry," she said, "but this is my husband's car and i never reverse it. could you possibly back me out?"

the "old lady" got out of the car to do so - and the woman roared off, straight to the police station. where the handbag was found to contain knives and a length of rope.

that made me go cold when i read it in the local paper! it's the forethought that went into the evil.... sick. no idea if they caught the "old lady".

and a friend of mine was recently stopped by a gorgeous hysterical young lady in the thinks-its-posh northern town of hale barns a couple of weeks ago. she knocked on the door for him to get out and help her, but he only wound the window down a crack. sure enough, a minute later, 2 huge blokes appeared to force him out of the car as he hadn't got out voluntarily enough for them to steal it.

he also drove off at high speed to the police station...

what is it with stalking innocent motorists?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:17, 8 replies)

Surely she'd have noticed
that the "old lady" had rather a deep voice?
(grandmasterfluffles Come to my Armageddon party on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:21, closed)

There's a few variations of this
One of them is where a man is waiting by a car with a cracked window, woman returns, man says "Saw some yobs smash the window, chased them off and waited by the window for the owner to return" man asks for a lift home, woman declines and later finds a knife and rope under the passenger seat.
(Belgaer is, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:23, closed)

Also the one where a woman stops to move an obstacle from the road
and the guy slips in the back of the car...
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:25, closed)

In my version
The old lady is actually a hot blonde beach volleyball player who proceeds to have a steamy lesbo romp with the driver of the car, caressing her silken inner thighs and moving higher, higher until...

Oh, never mind.
(frankspencer, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:27, closed)

reading that reminded me
of a Dutch film called "The Vanishing"
(The Goat www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:34, closed)

Urban legend
The first one my mother told me about over a decade ago - except it was a hammer in the bag.

And (story geek that I am) this tale actually dates back to the 1800s with horse-drawn carriages - according to Jan Harold Brunvand in his 1999 book 'Too Good To Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends'. The entire story is recounted there with different settings, but ultimately it's the Hairy Armed Hitchhiker.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:36, closed)

The old lady story is definitely urban legend
snopes.com/horrors/madmen/hairyarm.asp
( le brian, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:42, closed)

maybe the date
on the local paper was 1 april! although it's not funny.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:18, closed)