One young woman's October Surprise? A shocking story unravels...

No one is eager to call into the question the tearful story of the victim of an apparent brutal attack.

But the 20 year old McCain campaign volunteer who originally claimed to have been beaten in an ATM robbery by a robber who she said was "enraged" by a McCain bumper sticker on her car. The young woman claimed the assailant not only gave her a black eye but carved a "B" on her face. [Police now describe the wound as a "scratch" or "scrape."]

But inconsistencies in her story soon appeared.

According to reports, she declined medical attention and declined to let police photograph her injuries -- yet within several hours, a photo of her with what appeared to be a red abrasion in the shape of a backward "B" on her face appeared on the net.

Some folks speculated that the photo was reversed [Macintosh computers snap pictures in "mirror image" mode by default] or that the assailant had stood above her while she lay on the ground. Others wondered why a 20 year old woman would lie still while an assailant used his only weapon to carefully mark the B into her face. Others remarked that the abrasion was uniformly superficial -- suggesting that an enraged attacker would have cut or gouged the skin, particularly if the victim was struggling -- or even trembling in fear.

For a time, more details emerged: the young claimed the attacker, a 6' 4" black man with a dark complexion, after knocking her to the ground and marking her face, then put his hand under her shirt and fondled her breast.


But now Philadelphia police say that the woman has changed her story after taking a lie detector test and being confronted by police with photographic evidence (from the ATM's security camera) that shows her story of being attacked at the ATM is false.

Recanting her previous story, she now says that she was actually knocked unconscious and does not remember anything...

TMZ: Pittsburgh PD Smells a Rat
AP: Police: McCain volunteer changes ATM attack story [updated and expanded]