My husband worked with a man who took his family to one of the theme parks years ago. They had their son, who was maybe 5-ish (?) holding one of the parent’s hands and their toddler daughter, being pushed in a stroller. A man ran between them, pushed the parent pushing the stroller and ran with the stroller. Both parents gave chase and the stroller was let go and they recovered their daughter. They never saw their son again. When my husband worked with this guy, I think it had happened about 20 yrs ago. And these things do happen, they just arent’ publicized.
“They never saw their son again.”
That is so sad. I thought the worst was over for my kids. But my young teenage girls are now a good age for the sex slavery thing. (In the Seattle area, which has a large amount of underage sex slavery).
They don’t fit the profile though of the girls that get taken (loner/misfit), and they rarely are out to a mall or other crowded place, and never alone at something like that. And I try to get them to be aware of what is around them when they walk home from school the two blocks, but I’m pretty sure they are listening to their I-pods, etc.
Two years ago a young teen girl was almost abducted the next block up from us in quiet middle-class suburbia. A van was following her slowly, then pulled along side and stopped.
Luckily a nosy neighbor lady was watching the scene, and ran out her front door and yelled “Susi - you forgot your lunch!” The van tore off and the girl ran to the lady’s house. (Another stranger, but...)
The closest we came was at the Mount Rainer visitor’s center. My MIL was with my 18-month son and she screamed my name. I turned around and some Asian lady was holding him and her husband was busy taking photos of her and my son! They were all smiles as they handed him back. Weird - but amazing how fast it happened.