And there’s the difference;
*You* would hang around at a watchful distance and possibly call the cops if needed.
You would *not* attempt to break and enter a vehicle.
It’s known that I have issues with non-parents “touching” children but were it my child or my dog, I would instantly assume that any attempt to get hold of either one was an invitation to grave bodily harm.
We all remember Adam Walsh.
His mom ‘looked away’ for a moment and he was gone.
Did that little boy’s murderer tell other store patrons that he’d ‘found an unattended child and was just doing the right thing and taking him to the cops’ or whatever?
I’ve found a few unattended kids in my time.
I told them they were okay and that we’d find mom/dad and took them to the store’s service center where the person working bellowed their names over the loudspeaker.
And then I waited until the parents showed up because I don’t -know- the people running the service counter and I wanted to see if whomever showed up to claim the child was actually somebody the child _knew and was glad to see_.
Unless you’ve had the misfortune to experience what child abusers are capable of, you have *no* idea how incredibly clever they can be and how saintly they can appear.
Some of them actively cruise parking lots looking for ‘unattended kids in cars’.
And stores.
And playgrounds.
And church hallways.
Any place you can name, they’ll be there...waiting...and watching.
I agree with you one hundred percent. At the same time, I am always quick to tell Europeans that ours (the US) is a BIG country with a LOT of people and a VERY active media - amber alerts, etc. - which is followed intently by a world practically falling over in self-righteous schadenfreude to hear news of the latest “TERRIBLE CRIME IN AMERICA.” The truth is, per capita, the US is probably the safest, most crime-free place in the world... Certainly WAY above non-Nordic Western Europe. Kids here are pretty safe, and I believe the video monitoring revolution, though Orwellian, has deterred many would-be parking lot / shopping-mall predators.