Watch your children in public!

[Laura's Babies]

This was posted on another forum I go to:

My husband, 3 kids and I went to Wal-Mart last night because I needed to get a few lunch items and snacks for the boys' lunches. Well, while I was in the grocery area, my husband took the boys to the toy department to keep them occupied. My oldest, who is 8, went to the next aisle, while my husband stayed with the younger two on a different aisle. A few minutes later a nice lady took Joey to my husband, and told him that a man was trying to get Joey to go with him. She said the man ran when she walked up. According to Joey the man was trying to get him to follow him to the electronics department. My son did the right thing and kept telling him "no". Lord knows what would have happened if that lady hadn't walked up! Joey said he knows to scream if anyone tries to take him.

My husband told the person in Customer Service, and she said that the security people will look at the surveillance footage in the morning. I don't know what they can really do about it, though. If that man has tried it once, he will certainly try it again!! My husband and I are really shaken up over this. I couldn't stop hugging and kissing Joey last night. I am so thankful nothing happened to him. I told him to ALWAYS stay in sight of me or his Dad from now on.

The police were called and the incident was reported and the police are invesigtation...

That is just so scary and is a warning to every parent who takes their children out in public. DO NOT let your children out of your sight! Never let them wander off! I watched mine like a hawk when they were little and we were out in public and that was in the days before all these children were being abducted. PLEASE! PLEASE! Watch your children! All it takes is a moment......

[pomtzu]

Pretty scary stuff. I for one, NEVER let my children wander by themselves in a store when they were little - not even to the next aisle. I see so many little ones in stores today - by themselves - with no parent or older sibling around. Parents like to dump them in the toy department while they do their shopping, never giving a second thought to what could possibly happen. If you can't keep your kids with you and in sight, then get someone to watch them and leave them at home!

Look what happened to Adam Walsh years ago.

[happylabs]

Yes, these creeps are out there. I think I held my daughter's hand at the mall until she was 12! I was a paranoid over-protective mom. My daughter was a real stinker too when we would go shopping she would hide in the clothing racks sometimes. My son was the opposite. He pretty much stayed with us when we would go shopping to Walmart or the mall.

It scares me to death these days because parents do not seem to hold their children's hands. So often in the town I work in I see parents walking with the little ones 10 feet behind them!

Hopefully with security cameras being used more and more it will deter these jerks.

[Laura's Babies]

There were video cameras that showed the man going into that lane but you couldn't see him or the boy, then it showed him walking rather fast away from there. They looked at all the stores video and the man was in there with a woman and child and left with them.

The boy told the police he was looking at those new wrist bands and the man told him they had plenty more of them in the elsectronics dept and asked him to go back there to look at them with him. The boy told the man "no!". (A bathroom was back there close to the electronics dept.)

I was always accused of being a over-protective mom but that did not bother me at all.

[Husky_mom]

I´m a hawk momma too.. and I also tend to dress him in bright colors whenever we are out..

hey.. I don´t even let him go to the WC by himself.. lol.. he kinda hates going with me to the ladies room.. but as I tell him I can´t go over there and you sure can come over here.. no way I´m letting him in there by himself.. who knows who´s in there...

[Asiel]

That is scary. I was one of those overprotective moms too. My kids always had to hold my hand when they were old enough to walk around instead of being in the basket. And they knew better than to even look at another aisle...if something caught their eye I would go check it out with them.

[Catlady711]

A friend of mine recently went to the mall and saw a boy, perhaps 5-7 years old just sitting alone on the curb at night. She and her husband talked to the boy for a moment then convinced him to wait for his dad inside the store. When the dad finally showed up he apparently didn't seem ruffled bothered a bit by the kid being out there alone and seemed to think my friend and her husband were 'meddling' in things. She said the kid looked like he's waited like that before and didn't seem to think anything was unusual.

Sorta makes you wonder if some people aren't trying to get their kids stolen on purpose!