Seattle windshield pitting epidemic

The Seattle windshield pitting epidemic was a phenomenon that affected Bellingham, Seattle and other communities in Washington state in April 1954 and is considered an example of mass panic. Residents suddenly noticed holes, pits and dings in their windshields and concluded that a common causative agent was at work. Police first suspected vandals with BB guns, but reports spread from Bellingham to nearby towns and then to metropolitan Seattle, and explanations offered ranged from sand flea eggs to cosmic rays, a new naval radio transmitter and nuclear bomb testing. By 15 April close to 3,000 windshields had been reported, and the mayor asked the governor and the president for help. A police crime laboratory sergeant judged the reports to be 5 per cent hoodlumism and 95 per cent public hysteria, and the pitting stopped by 17 April. The episode has become a textbook case of collective delusion: ordinary pitting already existed, but media attention led people to look at their windshields and notice damage they had never seen before.