There's an urban legend being e-mailed around the net right now that starts as most urban legends do on a dark, cold night with a young woman alone in her car. An unmarked police car asks the young women to pull over to the side of the road; but suspicious of the circumstances, the girl remembers something her parents told her about how dialing #77 on your cell phone is a direct line to a state troopers dispatcher.

Refusing to leave her car, the girl places the call and 10 minutes later four real squad cars arrive; arresting a man who turns out to be a convicted rapist.

Now as far as urban legends go it's fairly bland, personally I would have added a tell tale prison tattoo, and obviously the rapist is the same man who killed her sister five years earlier; but this story does have one thing going for it... it's actually partially true.

In many states #77, or #677 in Canada, will connect you directly to the State Troopers, which is preferable to 911 because 911 could be answered by any number of government agencies and #77 cuts out the middle man.

However, if you ever find yourself in the situation of the story don't dial #77 unless your absolutely certain it's offered in your area... it'll waste valuable time. You do legally have to stop for someone claiming to be a police officer but you don't have to unroll your windows or get out until they provide legal identification.

And the best piece of advice I can give to a young girl in that situation is to calmly explain to the policeman/rapist that you're a virgin. Surely they too have seen enough slasher movies to realize hurting you would defeat the metaphor.