Hoaxer Jennifer Wilbanks

Known by most Americans back in 2005 as "The Runaway Bride," Jennifer Carol Wilbanks of Duluth, Georgia, not only had second thoughts about her upcoming marriage, but hopped a bus and later claimed she had been kidnapped.

A few days prior to what wouold have been her lavish wedding (600 guests, 14 attendants, 14 groomsmen), Wilbanks, 32, went out jogging, cut her hair, and took a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas,Nevada then took another bus to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tired and broke, she called 911 and reported she had been abducted by a Hispanic man and an Anglo woman who drove a blue van, but that she had escaped.

Her parents had put up a $100,000 reward and a search was on--until her phone call.

After being questioned by the FBI, Wilbanks admitted that her story was a hoax. She flew home, entered psychiatric care, and later reimbursed Duluth more than $13,000 for the city's search costs and paid other costs incurred by Gwinnett County.

Needless to say, the wedding was off. Charges against her were dismissed. She and her former fiance, like so many temporary celebrities, planned to profit from the bizarre episode by arranging a book deal. Instead, the two ended up suing and counter-suing one another-- suits that were eventually dropped.

An enterprising entrepreneur helped keep Wilbanks' public memory alive by marketing a barbecue sauce labeled "Jennifer's High Tailin' Hot Sauce." A Runaway Bride action figure also was manufactured and sold. Only in America...