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The Flashing Headlights Gang is the subject of a popular urban legend. Thought to have started in the 1980s, the story claims that some street gangs participate in an initiation ceremony in which they drive around at night without their headlights on. If any passing motorist flashes their headlights at them in an effort to alert them to the potential danger, the gang members pursue the good samaritan and the prospective member must kill them, usually either by drive-by shooting or by running them off the road. A similar story claims that people trying to join certain gangs are instructed to hide underneath the parked cars of random people and slash their ankles as they try to enter the car.
The urban legend is often passed around the internet under the guise of a public service message, with the author claiming to have been notified by the police about such gang initiations. Some early versions of the story claim that the murders were part of a Hells Angels initiation ceremony, while later ones blame the Crips or Bloods. Often, the ceremony is only planned to take place in a certain timespan in the near future, other times only on certain days, though some versions claim that it can happen on any night. The legend is often spread through cities in the US, though some versions have been spread in London.
The legend was given some credibility in 1992, when a woman in Stockton, California, Kelly Freed, was murdered in a drive-by shooting after flashing her headlights at another car that had failed to turn on its headlights. It is believed that the shooters from the other car took the action as a sign of disrespect, though they were not part of any gang and the murder was not part of an initiation.