MSNBC reports that a robber who held up six people in Reading, Pennsylvania over the past two weeks by posing as a driver in distress has been arrested.

"It’s one of those stories that sounds like an urban legend," said an earlier report, "but Reading police warn: it’s the real deal."

According to MSNBC, the unnamed suspect would approach other drivers claiming his car had broken down, ask them for a ride, then rob the Good Samaritans at gunpoint.

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Ever wondered how people would react if one of the best classical musicians in the world played for tips in a crowded subway station during rush hour?

Wonder no more. A viral email describes what happened one year ago this month when violin virtuoso Joshua Bell spent 45 minutes in a Washington, D.C. Metro station pumping out the classics. The response was, shall we say, underwhelming.

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"Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889."

So reads the inscription allegedly found on the back of a vintage photo currently making the rounds showing a man about to be executed on the gallows. A public statement attributed to Sen. Harry Reid's staff acknowledges that his great-great uncle Remus "passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed."

Which, though amusing, is more than a little perplexing considering that another text circulating on the Internet claims that Hillary Rodham Clinton had a train-robbing, horse-thieving uncle named Remus, too — and he met exactly the same fate!

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Evidently prompted by recent Israeli military actions in Gaza, rumors have been flying in the U.S. and Israel for the past several days about a possible terror attack in New York City. Though mostly vague and even contradictory as to the exact nature of the attack, every version I've seen says it's supposed to occur today.

Here's a typical variant as circulated via text message over the weekend:

Fwd Fwd Fwd: A woman possibly frum gave a tip to a Muslim taxi & out of appreciation, he warned her not to go to Manhattan next Wednesday.

A slightly different version went around via email:

My mother-in-law works in Rambam HS and one of the Rebbeim said that someone he knows was shopping yesterday and had a cabbie driving her around all day. At the end of the day she gave the driver a generous tip and he told her that he’s Muslim and since she was so nice she should stay away from the city on Wednesday.

Officials say this is not — I repeat, not — a credible threat. "There is no terror plot or threat connected to the rumor that is circulating in New York and in other cities abroad," Deputy New York Police Commissioner Paul Browne told the New York Daily News on Tuesday. "There are several variations on the rumor, but it is just that, the latest urban myth."

For that matter, it isn't even really "the latest" urban myth to hit the circuit. Variants of "The Grateful Terrorist" have circulated off and on ever since 9/11, and some say the basic narrative is even older than that.

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