A Scarry Event Today
My son walked in the door today after school. He walks 2 blocks over then cuts through the yard to get to our house from the bus drop off. He comes in and tells me someone kept calling to him from their garage saying "Hey! I can't breathe, I'm going to die!". The person was standing, hanging out the side of the garage saying this over and over to my son, trying to get him to come over. My son (G) ignored him and came straight home to tell me. First off I thought that someone who truly couldn't breath wouldn't be standing half in the garage and certainly couldn't be yelling repeatedly to my son and never once yelling help. So I decided I wanted to check this out. I put the kids in the van and took off up the street to the end of the block. Across the street a teenager was walking through some trees to a house where another boy was playing basketball. I noted it and went on to the house G was pointing out. The garage door was down and it looked like no one was home.
I stopped at a neighbors who is also a friend of mine to see if she knew anything about who lived there. By the way, across the street from this house is where the family of a convicted sex offender lives and where he had lived for a while. The neighbor wasn't home though and at that time my sister called my cell phone. I told her what happened and she immediately advised me to call the police. She was thinking that he hadn't lured G over but may have lured another child and then shut the garage door. Either way, the police should be notified. So I called the police and explained exactly what had happened. They said they would send an officer to the house and then to my house for a statement.
As I was waiting at home, the paramedics called to ask again about the house and make sure we had the right one. Then they said something about waiting for the police and that they would get back to me. Apparently no one was answering the door and they were going to break into the garage after the police arrived.
Soon they called me back and asked if we could come over to the scene which we did. A state policeman spoke to G as did the paramedics. At this time the garage door was open and a boy was sitting in the yard. The officer had G look at him and asked if it was that boy. My son said it wasn't. The officer then said he would bring out another boy who was in the house and G said something about the guy had on a white shirt. Mr. Policeman nodded and said that the kid in the house had just changed his clothes and put on a yellow shirt. (I thought that sounded pretty suspicious).
Anyway, the officer must have made the kid change into a white shirt then brought him out. My son said that that was him. I asked him if he was sure and he said he wasn't positive cause he thought the guy was taller but he thought it looked like him.
The kid protested that it couldn't have been him cause he wasn't even home and he'd been at a friends playing basketball. I thought, Ah hah, and told the officer about seeing a kid in a white shirt walking over to where another kid was playing ball after G had come and told me what happened.
The cop asked if I wanted to press charges for Disturbing the Peace. I really didn't necessarily want to do that. I told him I mainly wanted the parents to know about it and for the kid to realize the severity of trying to lure a child. The important thing was to see that no one had been injured or molested in any way and that hopefully this scared the kid enough that he would never do something like this again. I hope that this kid was just a regular kid who pulled a stupid prank. I certainly understand that kids do that. But when I wonder what would he have done if G HAD gone over there and it gives me chills.
Thank God my kids and I have regularly discussed that there are bad people who would try and trick kids like that. We've gone over different scenarios, different things bad guys might say, and different things my kids can do if that would ever happen. Mind you, my kids are 6 and 4 years old so I was a little afraid I was maybe frightening them unnecessarily. Now I'm excessively glad I did. People go after kids that young for a reason. But my son was prepared and did everything exactly as he should.
The possibilities today could range from nothing to something horrific. I wish the officer would have come back and spoken to me again after he had talked with the parents. I'd really like to know their reaction. You never know. Some people just jump to defending their kids without considering that their kid may have done something. I'd just feel better knowing they gave their kid what for. If they tried to minimize it or even deny it, the kid wouldn't get the full impact of the lesson. And THAT would be a crime.
I stopped at a neighbors who is also a friend of mine to see if she knew anything about who lived there. By the way, across the street from this house is where the family of a convicted sex offender lives and where he had lived for a while. The neighbor wasn't home though and at that time my sister called my cell phone. I told her what happened and she immediately advised me to call the police. She was thinking that he hadn't lured G over but may have lured another child and then shut the garage door. Either way, the police should be notified. So I called the police and explained exactly what had happened. They said they would send an officer to the house and then to my house for a statement.
As I was waiting at home, the paramedics called to ask again about the house and make sure we had the right one. Then they said something about waiting for the police and that they would get back to me. Apparently no one was answering the door and they were going to break into the garage after the police arrived.
Soon they called me back and asked if we could come over to the scene which we did. A state policeman spoke to G as did the paramedics. At this time the garage door was open and a boy was sitting in the yard. The officer had G look at him and asked if it was that boy. My son said it wasn't. The officer then said he would bring out another boy who was in the house and G said something about the guy had on a white shirt. Mr. Policeman nodded and said that the kid in the house had just changed his clothes and put on a yellow shirt. (I thought that sounded pretty suspicious).
Anyway, the officer must have made the kid change into a white shirt then brought him out. My son said that that was him. I asked him if he was sure and he said he wasn't positive cause he thought the guy was taller but he thought it looked like him.
The kid protested that it couldn't have been him cause he wasn't even home and he'd been at a friends playing basketball. I thought, Ah hah, and told the officer about seeing a kid in a white shirt walking over to where another kid was playing ball after G had come and told me what happened.
The cop asked if I wanted to press charges for Disturbing the Peace. I really didn't necessarily want to do that. I told him I mainly wanted the parents to know about it and for the kid to realize the severity of trying to lure a child. The important thing was to see that no one had been injured or molested in any way and that hopefully this scared the kid enough that he would never do something like this again. I hope that this kid was just a regular kid who pulled a stupid prank. I certainly understand that kids do that. But when I wonder what would he have done if G HAD gone over there and it gives me chills.
Thank God my kids and I have regularly discussed that there are bad people who would try and trick kids like that. We've gone over different scenarios, different things bad guys might say, and different things my kids can do if that would ever happen. Mind you, my kids are 6 and 4 years old so I was a little afraid I was maybe frightening them unnecessarily. Now I'm excessively glad I did. People go after kids that young for a reason. But my son was prepared and did everything exactly as he should.
The possibilities today could range from nothing to something horrific. I wish the officer would have come back and spoken to me again after he had talked with the parents. I'd really like to know their reaction. You never know. Some people just jump to defending their kids without considering that their kid may have done something. I'd just feel better knowing they gave their kid what for. If they tried to minimize it or even deny it, the kid wouldn't get the full impact of the lesson. And THAT would be a crime.
posted by SonSon at 7:59 PM
3 Comments:
This is really scary. Thank God nothing happened. And hope your neighbourhood will also be aware and alert so nothing goes wrong in the future.
Good your kept your kids aware, even if it felt unnecessary earlier.
You did good to warn your kids of different scenarios, and see, it worked! He came right home to you and told you what happened! You must be proud!
That was too close for comfort. Nice to see such a responsible kid and even better parenting.....
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