Attempted abduction

Hi All

Sadly, a little girl was taken away from her family in the area where I live recently. She was found very quickly (just a few minutes later), but had definitely been moved by another adult - there is talk that he was seen running away from the scene.

So - what would you do in this situation, if this had happened near you? Has it happened in your area? Did it change the way you cared for your kids, in that you kept them in the house/garden where you may have let them play at the local park?

Interested in your thoughts on this one....

Alec

Things like this terrify me. I know that I over react, and things like this happening are so rare. but I immediately have to fight the complusion to get the children inside and brick up the doors.

My son, 2, isn't allowed out to play yet, obviously. My daughter was allowed out the front of our house (small cul de sac) when she was 5. I could see her just about all the time and was happy with that. She is 13 now, and I still don't know how to casually let her out of my sight. She has to fight for every spec of personal freedom.

I'm overprotective, I know that. But... I'm not sure how to change.
Had that happened here, I wouldn't allow my children out.. to play.. not out ever.

I hate to let my 2 year old out of my sight, he is my only child and I worry about him constantly. He is at nursery and I have to trust tht they will not let anyone but me collect him. I worry when he is with his father as he is completely relaxed (far far far too relaxed IMO).

I live at the end of a cul de sac in a quiet village, on Sunday his father came over to help me with the garden and put our son in the back of the pick up truck to play whilst he cut the grass, out the front then left him there when he took the mower back to the shed ... I freaked!!! I know where I live is relatively safe but A) our son could have fallen out or B) he could have been a one off statistic that got stolen from my village ... I know it is unlikely where I live but to me the parents of all children who have gone missing probably thought they would be safe for a moment.

I cannot leave my child alone, if i am upsatirs, he is upstaris, if I am downstairs he is downstairs, we play in the garden together and we walk to the shops together. When he is with his father I have no idea what goes on and it does worry me. I know as he grows up I will have to give him more freedom but for now he is two and it is my job to look after him!!!

jx

My auntie works in Tesco and a while back they had a similar situation;

A mother let her daughter run into tesco and look at the toy isle while she was outside getting cash out the machine and a trolley by the time she got inside and went to the toy isles her daughter was no where to be found so she quickley alerted the staff who immedistely put out a tannoy, shut the front door shutters and began searching for her.

They found her in the mens toilets with 2 asian people promptly dressing her in boys clothes and snipping off her hair!!!

Thank god Tesco's were quick off the mark and shut the doors as she would of never seen her again!
When my auntie told me it sent shivers down my spine because as quick as a spce of 5-10mins that can happen.

I'm not sure how i would react in that situation or the one in the OP but it is always in the back of my mind. I'm fretting slightly in my head at the moment as we go on holiday a week on saturday abroad. The last time we went abroad was 1 week after Madeline MCann was taken- during that holiday it was a nightmare as it was constantly in my mind. So this is our second time abroad with our son and i'm already thinking in my head what we will do- take a wrist strap for the markets, i will sleep in his room (as were in a villa). I don't think i worry unnessecarily but it is always in my mind iynwim?

There are always going to be opportunists. There always have been. I remember when I was young, that little boy Daniel going missing in Greece. And Jamie Bulger. Our local hospital, in the days before locked doors and CCTV, was always getting people walking off with babies but because they tended to be mental health cases, the babies were almost always found within a few days.

The problem is incidents like this always get ridiculously overblown by the media these days. They go into the minutiae of the mentality of the people behind the abductions, turning them into infamous antiheroes. Whether they do it for infamy, kicks or getting their rocks off, they do it for power and the media give them more of it, which is seriously wrong, in my opinion.

I let mine play out on their own. I have done since Imogen was 5...actually, probably earlier than that as our back garden in the UK had a big gate she couldn't get out of and she couldn't leave without passing the back door, which was always open if she was out playing! And, yes, even Gabe goes out on his own, but if he so much as takes a step off the deck, I'm out there, as I only let him go out if I'm at the kitchen window watching him (cooking)! In public, though, I never let him out of my sight. I do let both girls out of my sight if they need the bathroom in the supermarket...I trust the older one to keep an eye on the younger one.

The Tescos story made me but I have to say 'Bravo' to Tescos for shutting the place down and finding the baby.

I don't let my children play out the front of my house. Its an A road so probably not safe!!
Luckily we live really rurally so there is no way they could go "out" by themselves.
As for the back garden, we have a gate into woods but that is padlocked and chained.
Therefore I am happy for the children (9 6 and 2) to play unsupervised in the back garden.
I know that Lara is good with things like the climbing frame and her brothers watch over her when they are out there.
To be honest unless I took her room to room with me there is no way I could see her all the time, I rush around from one end of the house to another ALL the time.
Outside of the house she is on reins normally or holding my hand being a mini mummy. Having said that she did wander off at a bootfair the other day and my heart stopped. Luckily she was one stall over stealing looking at the my little ponies.
The boys were allowed to walk off and look as long as they stayed together.
If I knew there was someone in the area taking children I would lock mine up and go out with my shotgun................. if I had one