Funny Urban Legends

Although there is no subject on urban myths at the Sociology or Anthropology Faculty, the legends that set fire to the imagination of a whole community say a lot about that city, even if some of them are totally hilarious. One attentive observer can see in them contemporary fears and worries, as well as a need to fill an empty space, as a result of the disappearing of the real myths and traditions.
Bucharest has its own share of funny myths that nobody witnessed but many can swear are true. They start with the old ones, as the one concerning an old deserted church supposedly inhabited by the devil (because of it's crooked cross- in reality the result of bombing in WW2). If you pass it by night time, you can supposedly hear voices inside and see the number 666 as a shadow on its wall. The most recent legend is about the card readers in buses and trams, that are meant to be a kind of Big Brother, following you and scanning your entire body, able to report everything about your breakfast.
But the most numerous and the nicest legends are still the ones coming from the communist era, many connected to its big constructions: the subway and the House of People. Here are three of them.
They say the busiest street in town, Victory Avenue, was closed for traffic for a pretty long while, because Ceausescu thought it dangerous for his safety. He was the only person allowed to go there by car. Incredibly for us, it had become a peaceful place where kids sat down drawing and even grass had started growing in the cracks.
The second one is about a subway driver who having to announce the following station unintentionally said, instead of "next- New Times" (this was the real name of the station), "next- Hard Times". They say he was arrested soon after.
And the third-also on the subway. There were big problems with water infiltrations in one station, but it had to be inaugurated on time, in the presence of the dictator. He noticed that the walls had a special glow (water was dripping along them) and he asked about the cause. For fear, he was told it was a special kind of paint so he ordered that all the stations would be painted with this nice new paint.
Hilarious? True? Embarrassing? Naive? Nostalgic?