Did a Fictional Crime Inspire a Real One?

On Tuesday, Philadelphia mother Bonnie Sweeten vanished with her 9-year-old daughter after calling 911 to say she'd been abducted by two black men and stuffed into the trunk of a car. The story made national headlines, as police and family members searched frantically for the mother and daughter. Two days later police discovered that it was all a hoax. There was no abduction, no black kidnappers; instead the pair had gone to Disney World.

As unusual as this case may seem, this is only one of several hoaxed abductions where the victim has called police claiming to have been abducted and confined in the trunk of a car. What would inspire Sweeten and other women to create such a specific, unusual story?

One answer may lie in pop culture. At times people will enact ideas and scenarios they see on television or in films. For example, the "abducted woman in a trunk on a cell phone" storyline was the plot for the 2002 action thriller "Hostage," starring Clive Owen. The scenario has also appeared in TV crime dramas. The process is what folklorists call "ostension," the acting out (either intentionally or unconsciously) of fictional narratives in the real world. In some ways it's similar to a copycat crime, and an interesting twist on the oft-heard "based on a true story" movie tagline. Sometimes real events are inspired by fictional ones.