Cajungirl, here is something from the Advocate in Baton Rouge (is that the local paper?) indicating that a lot of it is not true:
Rumors rampant in Baton Rouge area
By CHAD CALDER
Advocate business writer
Baton Rouge is talking. Rumors are flying.
The problem is, a lot of them aren’t true, for instance, ones circulating today.
The Tanger Outlet Mall in Gonzales has not been looted.
The shops at Tanger Outlet Mall remain open for business, manager Bridgette Tullos said today.
“We have not had a single report of shoplifting. We have not had a single report of looting,” Tullos said. “Our mall is safe and secure.”
The mall has changed its closing time from 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. because a number of employees are without electricity, Tullos said, and the stores are trying to accommodate them.
Rebecca Rainer, spokeswoman for the Mall at Cortana, another subject of closure rumors, said some stores in the Mall at Cortana are closed because they don’t have phone service and can’t run credit cards. But the mall is open for business, she said.
Workers in the Governmental Building in downtown Baton Rouge began leaving their offices today, after employees became concerned about walking to their cars at the Governmental Building. They had heard rumors that cars were being vandalized.
On one of the basement parking levels, where many employees park, there was a report of a suspicious man walking around the cars. A search of the parking area found no one.
A police officer on the scene at the Baton Rouge River Center, where thousands of exhausted refugees are staying, said shortly after 10:30 a.m. that police were working their way through the center to check for weapons and searching the parking lot.
They had heard a rumor that someone had broken into a pawn shop and stolen weapons.
Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Downtown Development District, said his office and phone lines have been busy talking to people who’ve heard all sorts of stories.
He said people hear things on the radio and on the street, “and it just grows.”
Rhorer said rumors began circulating last night that the Chevron near the Centroplex had been looted, but there was a minor scuffle, he said, which had been quickly taken care of by police.
After hearing the state had closed all their downtown offices, Rhorer called the state Office of Facility Planning, which told him they had simply begun locking their doors.
Tanger’s Tullos said all kinds of rumors are flying around. This morning she said she received an e-mail asking about a non-existent carjacking.
The only unusual activity in the mall parking lot, Tullos said, is its use as a staging area for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Guard.
A story began circulating Wednesday that a gang of bikers left New Orleans, en route to Baton Rouge to loot the city with guns stolen from Wal-Mart.
Wow there are some wild stories going around.