The
story of the kidney heist is a well known urban legend. Starting sometime in
the early 1990s, The Legend of the Kidney Heist, like so many other urban
legends, varies greatly in its details with each telling. The main plot points
of the story remain the same, however. One typical version is as follows.
A
friend told me that a friend of his was in Chicago on business, and decided to
go out to a Rush Street bar. He picked up a beautiful young woman, and they
eventually retreated to a motel. The next morning the man woke up with a
splitting headache, and there was blood all over the bed sheets. The woman was
gone. It doesn’t take him long to discover a freshly stitched incision on his
side, and by some means or other the man eventually reaches a local hospital
where he finds that one of his kidneys has been removed. He is told by the
hospital staff that the operation was performed very professionally, and that
his kidney is probably headed for sale on the black market. (Brunvard)
Another
popular version involves a pair of businessmen in a different city.
Two
married men were out of town on business and shared a hotel room. On the
evening before they were to return home, they went down to the hotel bar for a
drink. There they met two women, and after a couple of hours one man left with
one of the women. The remaining man said goodnight and went up to their room
alone. The next morning his friend had not returned, and he waited and waited,
fearing they would miss their plane home. Just as he was preparing to leave for
the airport, his phone rang. It was his friend, moaning and barely able to
talk, saying “Help me, help me; I’m all bloody!” His friend gave an address and
the man rushed to his friend’s aid with the police and found him in a motel
room in bed covered with blood. He was bleeding from a crudely cut and sutured
incision from his chest to his abdomen, and it was discovered that one of his
kidneys was missing. Apparently he had been duped by a gang of medically
trained organ thieves who lure unsuspecting people to strange motel rooms where
they drug them, then cut them open and steal organs to sell for transplants. (Brunvard)
 |
| Victim sitting in tub of ice by Vashtia |
The
Legend of the Kidney Heist, with all its variations, like many other urban
legends has proven to be false. The story is generally a fourth- or fifth-hand
account, and no evidence of actual occurrences in the U.S. has been found. The
story endures in popularity, however, and has been portrayed in many forms of
media, such as movies, television shows, and novels.
While
the legend has proven false in the U.S., chilling tales of similar occurrences
pop up from time to time in other countries.
Works Cited:
Brunvard, Jan
Harold. "“The Kidney Heist”." Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. Santa
Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Credo Reference. Web. 17 October 2012.
Emery, David.
"The Kidney Thieves." About.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
<http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/kidney_thieves.htm>.
Mikkelson,
Barbara, and David P. Mikkelson. "You've Got to Be Kidneying."
Snopes.com: Kidney Theft. Snopes.com, 12 Mar. 2008. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp>.
Russo, Karen.
"Indian Victims Relate Horror of Kidney Theft." ABC News.
ABC News Network, 01 Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
<http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4224506>.
Vashtia. “The
Kidney Heist”. Digital Art. Deviantart.com.
10 Aug 2007. 22 Oct. 2012.
< http://vashtia.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=96#/d10wryl>
Links for further research:
About.com: Urban Legends
Information
on the origin and development of the Kidney Heist myth.
Snopes.com:
You’ve Got to Be Kidneying Me
Further
information on the origin of the myth.
ABCNews.com: Indian Victims Relate Horror of Kidney
Theft
Information on
real life kidney thefts.
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