Anyone who knows me knows I really dislike when emails are forwarded that contain inaccurate or wrong information. Recently I have received from several different people the email about a girl who was pulled over by a convicted rapist posing as a cop. She averts danger by calling *77 from her cell phone (you can read the entire email here). While this story may or may not be true, the email goes on to tell its readers that they can call *77 from their cell phone in any state to be directly connect to the state trooper. This is simply not true. I found a site that lists what numbers can be called in various states for emergencies. I also contacted the Minnesota Department of Transportation, asking them if a number such as *77 existed. This is the response I received,

There is no such number in Minnesota. For all emergencies, use 911 with both a cell phone and a hard line phone. This will put you in immediate contact with the appropriate 911 Public Safety Answering Point.

Al Smith
Major; Metro Operations
Minnesota State Patrol

So, please stop forwarding emails that you don’t know to be true. Good rule of thumb – if an email does not have links to reputable sources (for example: cnn.com, cancer.org, dot.gov), then its probably better not to pass along misleading information.