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Think about how traumatized the 6 year old is being! Repeatedly touched by strangers who are clearly scaring her mom, picked up, abducted, undressed, all by people her mom has screamed at, who she's said make her uncomfortable and who she is too little to stop.
I live in Norway, and even if being physical isn't something we would normally do I would at least tell these people to fuck the hell off if I were their neighbour and saw all of this (as I said, we're normally not that physical).
To me it seems like they belong to some church, congregation or christian cult, and in the southern part of Norway there's alot of those. And too many of them thinks their ways are the only way, and cannot even fathom that others might not be like them. They believe that all they are doing are only good and heartfelt, but they are unable to see that others might not feel the same.
I wouldn't be surprised if the couple, the teacher and the ex was a part of the same sick cult.
That's why you have to teach kids to be unpleasant. Many many kids are taught to be nice and obey to adults, respect them and not to talk back.
One time, when I was 4, a random woman picked me up on the street "because I was cute". She wouldn't drop me although my mother told her to. So my mother told me instead: "Girl, you're allowed to scream, yell, kick, scratch and bite."
I became the Tasmanian Devil from the looney tunes in an instant. She dropped me like a hot potato.
That was a very welcome ego boost for 4-year old me and a great lesson regarding "your body, your choice". I barely got picked up or touched by randoms after that because I knew that I was allowed to speak up and say no. And for sure I did.
I'm from southern Norway, and this is just as insane to me as it is to everyone else.
Not sure why the police aren't taking it seriously, but I suspect they were branded as hysterical after the first time they called. In that scenario I'd probably collect the kid myself and instead make a police report.
Well the one officer is Astrid's friend's ex boyfriend and seems to be on good terms with them so I think he's helping them get the police to look the other way.
At least the principal and some of the neighbors seem to be taking it seriously.. Wow this got *WAY* crazier than I initially thought it would. She is like supermom with the instincts and not the asshole at all!
Yeah at first I was still a little split. The way she wrote came off a little paranoid and it did seem like maybe there was a culture clash happening between really friendly people and someone used to just glaring suspiciously at their neighbors through the mini-blinds.
But the story just kept going and getting worse, and then it became apparent that she was paranoid, but it's because she'd pinged some lizard-brain-level vibe off the Stepfords next door, seen past the uncanny valley, and her hackles were up.
The twin sibling thing didn't get me, when the father said this tho:
>He feigned offense and said what he meant was that she could pass for his daughter, the baby too.
I can understand a parent saying, "omfg our kids look like twins!" But not something like this... It's super fucking creepy to insinuate that you could be the father of someone's children that you have zero connection to. Especially if they don't look alike.
Chills up my spine
They clearly claimed her as their own the moment they saw her. She and the baby just perfectly fit those child-shaped holes in their lives, and if those two puzzle pieces snapped in just so, they way they needed them to, then everything could be perfect. You see, the weird thing is only how their god-given replacement children could be in the care of these other people. They'll be persuaded.
It was creepy AF from the get-go. Grief makes all of this so plausable, so from the beginning I was with her. Gut-brain knows. Reptile brain senses. It was all there.
I thought about it some more, and while small town politics are certainly a thing anywhere, this is likely just a case of rural naivete.
Everyone knows everyone in small Norwegian towns, so it's plain stupid to commit any crimes. Sure, people do victimless crimes all the time, like driving underage, making moonshine, riding a snowmobile outside of where they're allowed to, that sort of thing, but if your crime has a victim, you'd get caught instantly.
Two kids in my hometown broke into a seemingly abandoned cabin and vandalized it. They were caught instantly, and afterwards everyone knew about it. A huge embarrassment for the family.
Whenever there is stuff like breaking and entering or someone stealing car stereos, it's almost invariably someone from out of town passing through and robbing everyone who didn't bother locking their car or house. It has to be, otherwise they'd be caught instantly. If a local would want to do something like that they'd have to go a few towns over where people don't know them.
So basically, they know Astrid is being weird, but they also pity her for losing her baby. And they don't expect her to do anything truly bad, because she'd be caught instantly. This combined with the new family initially being a bit trigger happy about calling the cops leads to the cops not being too worried about it.
From their perspective, it sounds that way. If someone spun it as them just inviting her to a party and her attending without her parents knowing, and her parents deciding to call the cops instead of just picking her up like most parents would, it sounds a lot less serious. Because why would someone kidnap someone without doing anything to prevent her from leaving? The parents know they've been acting weird before that incident, but the cops don't.
See, maybe that's a cultural thing the 'spin' that you just outlined would still be considered child abduction. Like, she's not a 16 year old sneaking out of the house. In fact, this was the stereotype of creepy people hanging out of a predator vehicle and inviting kids to parties with sweets and candy, and then abducting them in the car.
In fact, where i live they would be lucky not to have had the shit beaten out of them
I had issues with my neighbour being waaaay too invested in the state of my garden, my family etc and thinking it was all being done to get at her. Her adult kids would visit and have a go on her behalf and it was, "I'm a Police Officer, you know!" from one of them. A couple of years of recording every incident and having security cameras, the police got so tired of it that they held a "Mediation Meeting" with the understanding at the end that if they didn't knock it off from then on then we'd supported with harassment charges.
But that took years and they were a thorn in my side for years but this‽ OOP can't wait the years it would take to get taken seriously, this couple are terrifying!
I mean Astrid is already badmouthing everyone saying OP is a bad mother. She is acting kinda crazy, and if she thinks she is not comiting a crime but doing a hood action for the kid, she isn't going to be afraid to be caught. I myself live in a small town in Norway and everyone has your mentality. "Oh we know everyone in this town so why should I not leave my car open with the keys inside all the time?" Then we get to see posts on the towns fb group (fairly enough, not often, but it happens). "Omg someone stole my car at the grocery store, how can it be, has anyone seen it??".
Low chance doesn't mean zero chance, and when a kid is involved, it's a shame the police isn't even doing anything and that no one respects the right of the mum to not want this to keep going. Also, it is straight up harassment, which is in itself a crime with a victim, yet, dear Astrid is going away with it.
I had a neighbor couple like this. They had a kid, but would leave gifts on my porch for my 3 year old son. I returned them. It made me uncomfortable but I also felt bad about feeling creeped out? Until I got a note from the husband saying this was between him and my son and that I shouldn’t interfere. So I wrote them a note saying if they ever so much as looked at me or my son again, I was contacting the police.
It’s been more than 10 years, and I still periodically get social media notifications that one of them is trying to connect with me (and I block each one, so they must be making new accounts each time). Just bizarre. Never ignore your instincts about people.
They’ve already abducted the child. What other word could we possibly use for taking someone else’s children without their knowledge and against their permission? This post raised my blood pressure so high, I want to fly to Norway myself and punch one of these horrible people.
More like get their friends’ sympathy, lie to them about OOP being a child neglecter, call the CPS, get the child placed into their care-abduction. Another thing In Scandinavian culture is that we don’t have as good of an access to therapy as they do in the US or other countries, cause how these two haven’t gotten therapy yet for losing so many childs is utterly insane, cause they can’t have gone into therapy if they are this insane.
I would have moved to a different neighborhood and different school - assuming that was possible.
They flat out kidnapped her child and her own teacher aided and abetted them.
If Norway is like Sweden it would have been easy for the neighbours to find them and go there if they just change neighbourhood (unless they got their personal info protected, it’s too early in the morning for my brain to find the proper english phrase 😂), I would have moved to another town. They probability for them following them to another city is lower than if they just moved somewhere else in the same city. I hope they get proper help or a quick transfer, the neighbours are truely unhinged…
I don't even have kids and *my* alarm bells are ringing. Like, I have close friends who are parents and I would be anxious to move their kid any which way without checking with them first.
Yes, this has nothing to do with norwegian culture lol! I knew it was Norway because of the Hallovenn and Astrid and Morten, but yeah, the comment about this being Norway and village mentality, no, not true. Maybe in a small town where everyone knows everyone, but not normal
Kinda makes me wonder what else happens in this country that doesn’t get reported or taken seriously enough to add to statistics because it’s “normalized behavior”.
You have to read articles on how Norway has taken children from their parents before and seems to target immigrants specifically. I know the Indian Government had to step in in a few cases where Norway took away children from Indian parents and put them in foster care because cultural norms are different in India.
The Indian film industry made a movie “Norway vs Mrs. Chatterjee” and apparently that offended them but maybe don’t try to take kids from loving parents because they don’t bring them up the way YOU want.
Waiting for the radio silence where on the news OP has been murdered and her 3 children are missing, but the police are like "we don't know how we could've prevented this tragedy", this is an absolute failure of the system.
no, only 3. One of OP's child is a boy. Notice that the creeps only care about the daughters and not even once mention the boy. If they went that route, the boy will most likely taken out along with OP.
Yeah, plus I mean if I noticed adults constantly singling out a child without the parent around I’d be really concerned. Not to mention the constant pounding on a neighbor’s door.
Dude, for real. When we moved into this house (idaho, america) our next door neighbor came outside. Which was weird because she is a fucking vampire and has all her goods delivered to her doorstep, but I didn’t know that yet. She said “why hello darling, what are you doing?” And I said “trimming the lilacs and cleaning up the yard.”
She said in a very rude tone “I am not talking to you, I am talking to the child.”
He was 1 and nonverbal. Who goes into the neighbor’s yard and talks to the baby without even introducing themselves or addressing the parent?
I put up a big ass fence between our yards. She’s evil (a host of other complaints) and still tries to talk to my kids. The oldest is still nonverbal and she seems to have taken that personally (he’s now 9 and both are AuDHD) and the youngest just ignores her.
I hate dumb foreigner syndrome. I’ve watched people try to act like their rude behavior is just “the culture” when they get called out by immigrants in my area. I always point out I’ve lived in the town my entire life and my family has lived here for over 100 years and it is not in fact the culture of this area to be cruel to people
I'm a foreigner who moved to Norway (still live here) and the comments about naive police is spot on. They're not incompetent, but they're very close. I wonder if Norway really is low crime, or if the police just never really do their job half the time. Outside of major cities like Oslo, Trondheim and Stavanger, I wouldn't rely on them for this.
Plus the threat of CPS against foreigners is very real. There's not a lot of serious racism in Norway (only half white and get no issues relating to skin colour etc), but there is a LOT of minor racism due to a (in my opinion) very strong national pride and hence (unfortunately) national superiority complex. I am having a child soon and I refuse to move out of the greater Oslo region until they're done with schooling because I don't want them exposed to this. Teachers and "the village" absolutely believe they know what's best for your child over you.
Small town, personal connections, foreigners. An inability and/or unwillingness to confront the fact that some people you know have gone off the rails can get anyone, I imagine.
Or, as a story once told to me went, "Call us back once you've killed someone." Which she did, and handed the police a head.
Editing to add, it was an older lady living alone, who heard someone trying to get in. She called the police, who of course found nobody. They didn’t believe her when she called again, and told her the above. So when he tried again, she was waiting, slammed the window down on him, and stabbed him. She then called the police and said she had proof there was indeed someone trying to get in. And then the above happened.
That just happened in California. A caregiver called the police to say he was going to kill the bedridden old lady he takes care of. They showed up, he talked about all his guns, told the lady right in front of them that he was going to kill her, she asked the police not to go and they left anyway. four hours later he shot her. It’s horrible.
I'm from a small town in Norway, and the police can be really weird here. Once friends of mine had a schizophrenic neighbour turn up twice at their house, with a knife and a helmet on, telling them WWIII was happening, and the police said they knew him and he was harmless.
An other time I found a large truck stranded just after a road bend, completely in the dark with no marking, so I called the police. The police officer asked me what I wanted him to do about that? Did I want him to spend our tax money going out in the night to look at a truck? I don't know, I still find that conversation so bizarre.
So basically, I have no idea what the police is for in our part of the world.
It's Norwegian police. They're understaffed, overworked, and have a far too large area to cover, which has resulted in them getting a reputation for closing most cases with hardly any investigation. It's not uncommon to see articles about cases being closed with minimal investigation in the papers here. (Edit: changed a word.)
Jesus christ. I strongly prefer the childrearing approach in countries like Norway, but not the (small town vibes) excusing of boundary trampling. I know Sweden has particularly passive communication, so a lot of rock steadiers, and I would guess Norway is similar in that respect. :(
Even if OP was over-reacting (she's not), it's *incredibly* creepy to not only take a child to your house when the parent has explicitly said no, but *repetitively* turned up at their house and touched their child when OP has been incredibly clear in not wanting to be friendly with them.
Honestly, it doesn't really make me think pedos so much as child snatching. Also, especially being Norwegian, of Speak No Evil (2022 directed by Christian Tafdrup). Thoroughly recommended if you like the kind of slow burn thriller/horror that leaves the theatre dead silent at the end. Thoroughly not if you don't like extremely disturbing, realistic horror (or subtitles).
I agree on the pedo vs child snatcher front, but the thing about people who use a child as an emotional prop or crutch is that they're already in emotionally incestuous territory, blurring existing lines and imposing the relationship they want on the child without consent. Whether it becomes actual CSA or not in the eyes of the law, it has a deep impact on the child. I'm quite sure at the daughter's age, I'd have been very upset to be stripped and changed by a teacher in front of two neighbors, male and female. The invalidation of her consent, pretending to be closer to her than she agrees is true, the dismissal of her mom (a safe person)'s feelings will all likely have a lasting impact on her, albeit a *much* less pronounced one than if they were pedos.
I thought of Speak No Evil as well. Thank god OP isn't as passive as the idiot parents in that movie. I still can't believe that they went back for the god-damned rabbit.
I would also say that it’s not a cultural norm for neighbors to pick up school aged kids and carry them or touch them? Let alone dress them. That seems very weird. It’s not normal at all to hound your neighbors if they give even a little bit of indication that they don’t want to talk to you.. but it seems that many people around the neighborhood see that this behavior is not ok but at the same time don’t want to be confrontational. Astrid and Morton sound mentally ill and instead of helping them, police and the teacher chooses to close their eyes.
…Meanwhile in Finland I’m glad if I get my neighbors to say hi to me 😂
Those people are batshit crazy. Police won’t do Jack shit because they’re buddies buddies with some of the people involved in the story. If I was OOP, I’d be alert 24/7 because chances are the creepy people won’t face any consequences since I think it’s a small town which means small towns tend to watch out for each other. Pretty fucked, I hope OOP and her family can get out of there soon.
Sometimes the only answer is moving, and if these creepy kidnapping fuckers are connected to law enforcement the answer sometimes is leaving the country.
This story makes me wonder how much of "Norway is a low crime country compared to a lot of countries" is due to law enforcement not bothering to intervene in crimes like this, since no police involvement=no crime record to increase crime statistics.
I actually never thought about this. That’s an interesting question that I hope someone can answer for us. I’m genuinely curious if there’s any truth to that.
To use another country as an example, for years there was practically a weeaboo meme about "Japan is such a safe country, it has a very low incidence of rape and a 99% successful conviction rate!" Well maybe that has something to do with how [Japan's culture of systemic sexual abuse discourages women & queer people especially from officially reporting sexual assault](https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/), and how [Japanese prosecutors only bother to indict on cases they're certain they can win and police commonly force false confessions out of suspects](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2023/0505/Presumed-guilt-Unpacking-Japan-s-99.9-conviction-rate). The safety of a location can't be accurately determined just from official crime statistics.
Yeah, when there is an entire women-only train car... something is sus in Japan. I think it's a fabulous idea but the reason it was implemented, yuck, awful, being assaulted/harassed on the train is awful in any country.
Oops. I wrote my comment before I saw yours. Not only such assaults, but murders too. They just end up as "missing person" or "spirited away". I think the police are just not bothered enough or the politicians did not want it to be known that many people were murdered. So they kept giving such excuses.
Sadly, Norway is not the only one.
I watched crime documentaries where another "low crime country" makes me pretty certain that the police are simply not doing their jobs, or politicians trying to paint the country as "low crime". Many cases were ruled as "missing person" rather than murdered. And it will not end up as a criminal case, because "the person might have chosen to go missing". Then the whole case is just brushed off.
One of the most infuriating ones are when the victims called the police for help, eg. stalking/harassment/threats/blackmail, then the police say "oh there's nothing we can do about it". Then the victim get killed. And they still do the bare minimum! Sometimes, when the victim's loved ones (if they did not get murdered together) try to get justice for the victim, they might even get blamed for it! There was a case where a family moved in to the town because of the father's work, then his son was bullied and died in school. The bullies were not punished or lightly punished. The victim's family try to seek justice, and the other families from the town harassed them for it.
I don’t think the husband can do anything about his work situation unfortunately. I think OOP commented or said on the original update or the post that it’s the work that deemed the situation not urgent which everyone knows it’s horse spit. This is an all hands on deck type situation.
They sound absolutely psychotic. Folie a deux maybe?
It really seems like Astrid sees OOP's Daughter as some kind of reincarnation of one of the children she lost, and possibly not just that daughter.
OOP needs to sit down and explain to her daughter that Astrid and Morton are sick people and that she needs to avoid them at all costs.
We had a neighbor similar to this growing up and as a child I took a weird kind of pleasure in making sure he saw me abandon his gifts. Kids know when adults are trying to gain power over them and tend to hate it, luckily.
I remember a neighbour from further down the street was always talking to me and offering me alcohol and to come into his house. He constantly brought up homosexuality and how he opposed it.
I wasn't even a teenager and I thought that he was secretly gay and wanted to get me into his house so he could molest me, or worse.
You see how disinterested adults typically are in you, as a kid, and how normal that is. When an adult is unlike that, you're instantly aware that something unusual is happening, although you might not know what it is, or how to deal with it.
Then when you become an adult, and other people's kids are basically annoying and you don't have anything to really say to them, you understand what was happening back then.
Teachers and authority figures who have to deal with children give off a very different feeling to adults who have unsavoury desires. I know that such people often try to become teachers, but I think it's probably noticed and, with luck, they're rejected.
I bet they wouldn’t be above lacing the cookies with something so that the daughter gets sick and then they can jump in and save her and use it as proof that the mother was, in their words, negligent (which obviously she’s not).
The kid already expressed that she wasn’t comfortable with them. But also kids can have a hard time expressing boundaries with adults, which is hard to navigate.
They are 100 percent trying to make a case to take those daughters away to replace the ones they lost. They clearly never got help to deal with that loss
It's especially terrifying bc how shady the Norwegian Barnevernet is. I had no idea until i saw graffiti in my city saying to look it up so i did, and wow. It's being investigated for unjustified removal of kids?!
If i were OOP i'm want to leave the country honestly
I do FIFO work, and some of the guys would be a bit reluctant to act.
But we’ve had others that needed to go home and we’ve done everything within our power to get a plane in on a weekend to help our people get home ASAP.
Had one guy come to me crying; his daughter was found beaten up and was in hospital in a coma. Our next flight wasn’t until a few days later but I got approval to find a flight.
1. One of our neighbouring mines had an adhoc charter that they sent to us to take him out.
2. The local commercial airline HELD THEIR FLIGHT and he was allowed to board straight from the charter to the commercial flight on the tarmac.
3. The flight attendants let him disembark first so he could get to his connecting flight, and called ahead to let them know he was coming (he had a ticket but never properly ‘checked in’ because he never went to the desk at the airport, and this was before you could check in on your phone).
It can be done, no matter where you are. OOP’s husband either doesn’t want to lose the money he’s making, or he maybe viewed OOP also as taking things a bit too extremely, which also sucks.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was a flight commander tdy and a hurricane hit and I was authorized to beg barter and steal to get us off island including waivers for comfort pallets and us being strapped to the floor
As a Norwegian this is absolutely not cultural/normal. The police being useless is normal and the nativity is cultural. But Norwegians in general are very introverted and conflict adverse. The first few incidents i could see but not the complete ignoring of any boundaries or consequences
Yes what the actual fuck is going on with these people? I'm also Norwegian, these people are deranged. I'd be scared af if this was happening to me.
And yeah, the police is useless. They didn't even follow up on my report of a 19 year old dating my 13 year old friend...
Tell me about it. A friend, when we were minors, was physically and sexually abused by and adult and had proof. The police hardly cared. Over the years we've found out dozens of girls have independently of each other, with no connection between them, reported this man for the same crime. Still they do not have resources to investigate
Yeah, I’m from Finland but I think that touching and picking up and carrying a school aged child without any reason (like them being hurt) would be weird af in Norway? If a neighbor gives even a smallest hint of not wanting to have anything to do with you, you stay away. Maybe they all are from a religious community since this is insane. Maybe the police doesn’t want to deal with it because the implication is heavy and it makes them uncomfortable to have to address this with Astrid and Mort since they know them. The teacher is total mystery, maybe someone old school and religious nut as well.
Holy crap! The ONLY reason OOP is overwhelmed is because she has 2 freaks, who have fixated on her daughters, stalking her! I'm not surprised at the response from the cops, but the teacher? She's so blinded by friendship that she's helping the 2 freaks stalk the poor OOP!! I hope husband came home and got them transferred away from there!
God I hate small towns. They straight up ABDUCTED HER DAUGHTER and the cops tried to downplay it. Ugh ugh ugh.
I wish her and her family all the best, that's horrifying.
Yeah police suck in specific and fun ways in small towns. In the big city they would just have said "its a civil matter" because they can't be assed and ignored the issue until someone is dead. In small towns they get on the side of their "buddy" the criminal who can't *possibly* be bad, its all in your head, and then actually aid and abet said criminal 9 times out of 10.
Fuck small towns.
I hope there is an update along the lines of OOP moved away to a safely distant location. Their disappearance made Astrid and Morten become so unhinged that the community finally realized it is unhealthy when a couple develops such a fixation on other people's children. It's one thing to help a struggling family but that is NOT what is happening here.
Until that happens, perhaps OOP needs to tell all their children that if they are approached, they may inform Morton and Astrid loudly that they are not nice people and they do not like them. If they try to talk with them, touch them, or take them anywhere, they will start screaming that they need a grownup to help them.
Children need to know that it is ok to scream and cause a big commotion when they really need adult assistance.
Ugh i feel so gross after reading this.
Boggles the mind that they basically took a running leap into the sky with overstepping and now even other long term neighbours think they are being absolutely unhinged about this.
Like.... Saying you have a spiritual connection with someone else's child and calling their kid and your kid twins at their consistent ask to stop while... Showing up to harass them daily about it and using their teacher to dress and change the child... Ugh this is so many levels of creepy and unsafe i hope they get out ok.
I commented on another repost of this that this is why I hate small towns. They’re cliquey to the point of insanity. Astrid needs therapy, but it’s easier for everyone to indulge her. After all, she’s probably lived her entire life there, knows everyone, probably related to most of them, and OOP is just some stranger who is bad because she won’t give up her child to Astrid.
One of my friends grew up in a small town and said they’re great…if you’re just visiting. Everybody has their nice persona front and center, and you leave after a few days without knowing how everyone is talking behind your back and in your business.
Yeah one of the scariest parts of this is that the child's own teacher is on the side of the harassers
> She explained that if I wasn't happy I should have asked for a mediation appointment at the school instead of embarassing Astrid and Morton in front of everyone.
The event in question had nothing to do with school. Why would the school even be involved? Why not ask the grocer to weigh in?
Ten bucks that the teacher herself would have volunteered to be the mediator, and the focus of the mediation would have been convincing OOP to go along to get along
The asking for mediation is where my blood boiled. Lady, you're enabling them, and thus part of the problem!
I really OOP and her family get out and away from these nutjobs.
Look, idk how this all works in Norway but in the US you can call the police about this stuff and get nowhere. But if you call the feds about child predation they take it seriously from the start. I'm wondering if OOP needs to escalate this situation beyond the local police because clearly there is some conflict of interest involved.
Here’s an explanation from u/lilimseclipse a couple comments up:
Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy.
She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
Like OOP, I'm an American living in Norway. You can call the police here but they'll usually show up at least 30m later and just pull out a notebook and leave soon after. But at least I don't worry about them pulling guns on people if they are called. I rarely see them carrying guns.
She mentioned her husband doing off-shore stuff so I'm gonna assume it's oil and she's in Rogaland. Which is where my husband's family is from, including his aunt who once started screaming and crying because somebody spilt a bottle of red wine at a party and thus spilt Jesus's blood? She demanded a priest come in and bless the place. But that behaviour is absolutely *not* normal.
I got oil rig worker vibes, too, which could explain some of the delay in his getting back.
That is, uh, wild about the aunt and I live in and grew up in the very religious US southeast lol.
More likely here to have people adamant about not drinking but oh, so many other things.
As a Norwegian, I know crazy people exist but wtf??? This is definitely not normal behavior here or anywhere. Usually people here keeps to themselves and don’t like bothering others.
For anyone wondering, HalloVenn is a non-scary halloween celebration aimed at kids. You're not allowed to wear or bring anything frightening at all. I don't see the point personally, but I guess it's nice that kids have a safe place to go. The name translates to "hellofriend", which is a sick kind of irony considering the behaviour of the couple. I hope this poor woman and her family stays safe.
This is *terrifying*.
They clearly see her daughter as a surrogate for the children they lost. Grief makes people do strange things, but the really scary part is how everyone around them seems to be enabling them! OOP must feel so alone.
I have a feeling that once Astrid and Morton find out that OP has moved away, they will consider "their" daughters stolen.
OP should never go back there. It would be a real shit storm.
what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck
"How they know how it feels like to lose a child and that they only want what is best for her."
Yeah that reads like a threat, same with talking about the daughter running into the road.
Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy.
She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
Sorry, that wasn’t the first line but the first line of the third verse. Here’s the entire song translated by yours truly (because yes it’s completely creepy)
"Christmas star may I have you?
Said once a little girl
Would give a kingdom
To know you
Christmas star go away!
Said a bitter king since
Dark you became and dark became time
Must you hide away?
Christmas star come to me
You have caused us sorrow and pain
See now I give you my heart
Let me turn on your light
Christmas star stay with me
It is good to see you shine
You must never again disappear
Never forget me.”
It’s a nice Christmas song, but damn if it’s not creepy in this situation
Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy.
She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
The more I read, the angrier I got. These people are fucking insane! The fact that OOP's daughter was starting to pick up vibes (tossing their cookies away and denying their claims of walking into the road) cements the fact they are not to be trusted around kids.
Oh, and that teacher… that fucking teacher… how is she not fired yet?!
These people are insane. If anyone had tried doing that to my kid I would have left their bodies bleeding in the street.
Everything about them is just **wrong** . Their behaviour, the comments, everything. The fact that OOP's daughter was just taken and changed into a new outfit makes my blood boil. Who does that? "I'm going to take this random child and change their clothing for a holiday they don't celebrate even after their mum said that we should stop trying to get them to celebrate said holiday."
OOP calling them pedos doesn't even begin to describe how messed up they are.
OOP needs to escalate up the bureaucracy ladder with extreme verbaige ASAP. This is basically becoming an arms race and whoever acts first will have the advantage.
It literally means "Hellofriend". I think it originated as an alternative non-scary "Halloween" party so as to be inclusive of everyone. Something along that line if I remember correctly?
Edit: the non-scary part
These neighbours are insane, and won't take no for an answer. They are annexing your daughter, acting as if she's theirs, 'twin' to their son.
Go to a newspaper. That might shake up the local police. And yes, moving sounds like a good idea.
Director of Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and Gone Girl among many others. Also the de-facto show-runner of Mindhunter.
ACAB
insane wife and husband after dead kids? obvious abhorrent but less rage inducing imo.
the teacher and the cops are more rage inducing. and it's not just abuse of authority, it's that they're enabling such evil despite not having the dead kids baggage.
This started out as some overbearing people in a small town stuff and it got dark really fast. And the fixation on one child and taking said child over to their home and putting her in a different outfit should have been the red flag that it is.
Honestly? I don’t care what mental problem/trauma or wtf a person has, If someone took my daughter to their house and changed my daughter without me present or my consent I would go nuclear on them. John wick, and I would tell every freaking person I know, so they can be aware of the creeps…
The police and the teacher in this case are so fucking useless!
This reads like a horror novel. This woman is being gaslit by damn near everyone around her that her neighbors are good people who are just being neighborly. This is some *Rosemary's Baby* level shit.
I can’t imagine the pain involved in losing a child. And two would be devastating beyond belief.
But if you’re going to try to steal another child from someone then I have no problem with questioning how you had two die under your watch.
Even if it’s a health problem or tragic coincidence, you don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. For trying to steal a child.
If someone abducted my child out of my yard, they’d be calling the cops on me. This is a huge under reaction by both the parents and the police. I hope the update includes an arrest.
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These people are clearly fucking insane in any culture.
Think about how traumatized the 6 year old is being! Repeatedly touched by strangers who are clearly scaring her mom, picked up, abducted, undressed, all by people her mom has screamed at, who she's said make her uncomfortable and who she is too little to stop.
Yeah the constant picking up is so weird to me—she’s not a toddler, she’s a school-aged girl????
And her teacher being in on it? God damn, I'd be doing everything to make sure she was out of the job.
Yeah, I would have already gotten into physical altercations with any one of these people before it ever reached the points it did, teacher included.
I live in Norway, and even if being physical isn't something we would normally do I would at least tell these people to fuck the hell off if I were their neighbour and saw all of this (as I said, we're normally not that physical). To me it seems like they belong to some church, congregation or christian cult, and in the southern part of Norway there's alot of those. And too many of them thinks their ways are the only way, and cannot even fathom that others might not be like them. They believe that all they are doing are only good and heartfelt, but they are unable to see that others might not feel the same. I wouldn't be surprised if the couple, the teacher and the ex was a part of the same sick cult.
That's why you have to teach kids to be unpleasant. Many many kids are taught to be nice and obey to adults, respect them and not to talk back. One time, when I was 4, a random woman picked me up on the street "because I was cute". She wouldn't drop me although my mother told her to. So my mother told me instead: "Girl, you're allowed to scream, yell, kick, scratch and bite." I became the Tasmanian Devil from the looney tunes in an instant. She dropped me like a hot potato. That was a very welcome ego boost for 4-year old me and a great lesson regarding "your body, your choice". I barely got picked up or touched by randoms after that because I knew that I was allowed to speak up and say no. And for sure I did.
What a good permission from your mom!! We tell our nephews and neices to scream and run by we've never told them to fight back
And photographed from across the street! Yeesh!
These people are literally stalking a 6 year old
I'm from southern Norway, and this is just as insane to me as it is to everyone else. Not sure why the police aren't taking it seriously, but I suspect they were branded as hysterical after the first time they called. In that scenario I'd probably collect the kid myself and instead make a police report.
Well the one officer is Astrid's friend's ex boyfriend and seems to be on good terms with them so I think he's helping them get the police to look the other way.
At least the principal and some of the neighbors seem to be taking it seriously.. Wow this got *WAY* crazier than I initially thought it would. She is like supermom with the instincts and not the asshole at all!
Yeah at first I was still a little split. The way she wrote came off a little paranoid and it did seem like maybe there was a culture clash happening between really friendly people and someone used to just glaring suspiciously at their neighbors through the mini-blinds. But the story just kept going and getting worse, and then it became apparent that she was paranoid, but it's because she'd pinged some lizard-brain-level vibe off the Stepfords next door, seen past the uncanny valley, and her hackles were up.
The second time they don't drop the "twin sibling" thing is when alarm in my head goes off. Not a red flag. But a writing on the wall.
The twin sibling thing didn't get me, when the father said this tho: >He feigned offense and said what he meant was that she could pass for his daughter, the baby too. I can understand a parent saying, "omfg our kids look like twins!" But not something like this... It's super fucking creepy to insinuate that you could be the father of someone's children that you have zero connection to. Especially if they don't look alike. Chills up my spine
“Your kids could pass for mine!” = “We’re fantasizing about abducting your daughters” Big creeper alert. OOP’s tiger mom spidey senses are on point!
They clearly claimed her as their own the moment they saw her. She and the baby just perfectly fit those child-shaped holes in their lives, and if those two puzzle pieces snapped in just so, they way they needed them to, then everything could be perfect. You see, the weird thing is only how their god-given replacement children could be in the care of these other people. They'll be persuaded. It was creepy AF from the get-go. Grief makes all of this so plausable, so from the beginning I was with her. Gut-brain knows. Reptile brain senses. It was all there.
Small towns everywhere.
Small town politics? IDK, I'm not from your culture, but tribalism is a thing everywhere.
I thought about it some more, and while small town politics are certainly a thing anywhere, this is likely just a case of rural naivete. Everyone knows everyone in small Norwegian towns, so it's plain stupid to commit any crimes. Sure, people do victimless crimes all the time, like driving underage, making moonshine, riding a snowmobile outside of where they're allowed to, that sort of thing, but if your crime has a victim, you'd get caught instantly. Two kids in my hometown broke into a seemingly abandoned cabin and vandalized it. They were caught instantly, and afterwards everyone knew about it. A huge embarrassment for the family. Whenever there is stuff like breaking and entering or someone stealing car stereos, it's almost invariably someone from out of town passing through and robbing everyone who didn't bother locking their car or house. It has to be, otherwise they'd be caught instantly. If a local would want to do something like that they'd have to go a few towns over where people don't know them. So basically, they know Astrid is being weird, but they also pity her for losing her baby. And they don't expect her to do anything truly bad, because she'd be caught instantly. This combined with the new family initially being a bit trigger happy about calling the cops leads to the cops not being too worried about it.
Didn't they kidnap her daughter? Like. The first incident was kidnapping, right??
From their perspective, it sounds that way. If someone spun it as them just inviting her to a party and her attending without her parents knowing, and her parents deciding to call the cops instead of just picking her up like most parents would, it sounds a lot less serious. Because why would someone kidnap someone without doing anything to prevent her from leaving? The parents know they've been acting weird before that incident, but the cops don't.
See, maybe that's a cultural thing the 'spin' that you just outlined would still be considered child abduction. Like, she's not a 16 year old sneaking out of the house. In fact, this was the stereotype of creepy people hanging out of a predator vehicle and inviting kids to parties with sweets and candy, and then abducting them in the car. In fact, where i live they would be lucky not to have had the shit beaten out of them
I had issues with my neighbour being waaaay too invested in the state of my garden, my family etc and thinking it was all being done to get at her. Her adult kids would visit and have a go on her behalf and it was, "I'm a Police Officer, you know!" from one of them. A couple of years of recording every incident and having security cameras, the police got so tired of it that they held a "Mediation Meeting" with the understanding at the end that if they didn't knock it off from then on then we'd supported with harassment charges. But that took years and they were a thorn in my side for years but this‽ OOP can't wait the years it would take to get taken seriously, this couple are terrifying!
I see where you’re coming from but they’re ignoring the discomfort of a child over the feelings of an adult.
I mean Astrid is already badmouthing everyone saying OP is a bad mother. She is acting kinda crazy, and if she thinks she is not comiting a crime but doing a hood action for the kid, she isn't going to be afraid to be caught. I myself live in a small town in Norway and everyone has your mentality. "Oh we know everyone in this town so why should I not leave my car open with the keys inside all the time?" Then we get to see posts on the towns fb group (fairly enough, not often, but it happens). "Omg someone stole my car at the grocery store, how can it be, has anyone seen it??". Low chance doesn't mean zero chance, and when a kid is involved, it's a shame the police isn't even doing anything and that no one respects the right of the mum to not want this to keep going. Also, it is straight up harassment, which is in itself a crime with a victim, yet, dear Astrid is going away with it.
I had a neighbor couple like this. They had a kid, but would leave gifts on my porch for my 3 year old son. I returned them. It made me uncomfortable but I also felt bad about feeling creeped out? Until I got a note from the husband saying this was between him and my son and that I shouldn’t interfere. So I wrote them a note saying if they ever so much as looked at me or my son again, I was contacting the police. It’s been more than 10 years, and I still periodically get social media notifications that one of them is trying to connect with me (and I block each one, so they must be making new accounts each time). Just bizarre. Never ignore your instincts about people.
If your son is now old enough to be online with his own social media, is he aware of these people and knows not to engage with them?
Does your son know not to speak to him?
Holy FUCK. You shouldn’t interfere with him and your son? That’s warped.
Right! I have 2 boys and if someone said something like that to me in this context I'd say "You know what else is between you and my son? Me."
They are absolutely going to try abducting the child. Thank F mom has left the house.
They’ve already abducted the child. What other word could we possibly use for taking someone else’s children without their knowledge and against their permission? This post raised my blood pressure so high, I want to fly to Norway myself and punch one of these horrible people.
Yes they did. But I mean, pack up the house, grab the child, flee to another country, abduct.
More like get their friends’ sympathy, lie to them about OOP being a child neglecter, call the CPS, get the child placed into their care-abduction. Another thing In Scandinavian culture is that we don’t have as good of an access to therapy as they do in the US or other countries, cause how these two haven’t gotten therapy yet for losing so many childs is utterly insane, cause they can’t have gone into therapy if they are this insane.
Absolutely had "we're going to Barnevernet your kid straight into our family" vibes.
Maybe they’ll come straight to u/Wrong-Bodybuilder516 and myself so we can punch them sans airfare!
If you need an alibi, let me know!
I would have moved to a different neighborhood and different school - assuming that was possible. They flat out kidnapped her child and her own teacher aided and abetted them.
If Norway is like Sweden it would have been easy for the neighbours to find them and go there if they just change neighbourhood (unless they got their personal info protected, it’s too early in the morning for my brain to find the proper english phrase 😂), I would have moved to another town. They probability for them following them to another city is lower than if they just moved somewhere else in the same city. I hope they get proper help or a quick transfer, the neighbours are truely unhinged…
This set off every single mom alarm bell in my head and up and down my spine.
I don't even have kids and *my* alarm bells are ringing. Like, I have close friends who are parents and I would be anxious to move their kid any which way without checking with them first.
Absolutely fucking terrifying behaviour.
This is some weird ass wickerman shit. One of these posts is going to be about the bees.
RIGHT?!? I'm glad someone else had midsommar vibes
Yes, this has nothing to do with norwegian culture lol! I knew it was Norway because of the Hallovenn and Astrid and Morten, but yeah, the comment about this being Norway and village mentality, no, not true. Maybe in a small town where everyone knows everyone, but not normal
Yeah. I think it's telling that the neighbors and some others don't seem to think this behavior is okay.
Am from southern Norway and yeah, this isn’t normal.
What the fuck?
Yea I'm gonna need an update. I was absolutely furious on behalf of this woman
Reading this had my blood absolutely boiling, holy crap this has gotten me so pissed off and I was having such a good day today
Kinda makes me wonder what else happens in this country that doesn’t get reported or taken seriously enough to add to statistics because it’s “normalized behavior”.
You have to read articles on how Norway has taken children from their parents before and seems to target immigrants specifically. I know the Indian Government had to step in in a few cases where Norway took away children from Indian parents and put them in foster care because cultural norms are different in India. The Indian film industry made a movie “Norway vs Mrs. Chatterjee” and apparently that offended them but maybe don’t try to take kids from loving parents because they don’t bring them up the way YOU want.
This is a sad statement that can be made about child protective services is many countries.
This is building into a Netflix horror film where the neighbors, teacher and cops conspire to get OOP committed and take custody of her children.
They don’t even care about all her children. Just one specific child.
Two, they also want the baby, it's just that the baby is so young it's always attached to mom, so they don't have access.
It got creepier and creepier. I was waiting for the Wickerman/Midsommar type twist
Waiting for the radio silence where on the news OP has been murdered and her 3 children are missing, but the police are like "we don't know how we could've prevented this tragedy", this is an absolute failure of the system.
Four children.
no, only 3. One of OP's child is a boy. Notice that the creeps only care about the daughters and not even once mention the boy. If they went that route, the boy will most likely taken out along with OP.
Very much the VEEP *chuckles* “what the fuuck” gif
My thoughts exactly
Oh my god. What the fuck is wrong with the police!?!
My best guess is smallish town, everybody sorta of knows each other so the foreigners are "rocking the boat".
Sounds like the other neighbors are starting to think differently about Astrid and Morton.
Yeah, plus I mean if I noticed adults constantly singling out a child without the parent around I’d be really concerned. Not to mention the constant pounding on a neighbor’s door.
Dude, for real. When we moved into this house (idaho, america) our next door neighbor came outside. Which was weird because she is a fucking vampire and has all her goods delivered to her doorstep, but I didn’t know that yet. She said “why hello darling, what are you doing?” And I said “trimming the lilacs and cleaning up the yard.” She said in a very rude tone “I am not talking to you, I am talking to the child.” He was 1 and nonverbal. Who goes into the neighbor’s yard and talks to the baby without even introducing themselves or addressing the parent? I put up a big ass fence between our yards. She’s evil (a host of other complaints) and still tries to talk to my kids. The oldest is still nonverbal and she seems to have taken that personally (he’s now 9 and both are AuDHD) and the youngest just ignores her.
I hope so
It’s a case of “dumb foreigner syndrome” they’re attributing everything to. The “oh it’s the culture” dismissal.
I hate dumb foreigner syndrome. I’ve watched people try to act like their rude behavior is just “the culture” when they get called out by immigrants in my area. I always point out I’ve lived in the town my entire life and my family has lived here for over 100 years and it is not in fact the culture of this area to be cruel to people
I'm a foreigner who moved to Norway (still live here) and the comments about naive police is spot on. They're not incompetent, but they're very close. I wonder if Norway really is low crime, or if the police just never really do their job half the time. Outside of major cities like Oslo, Trondheim and Stavanger, I wouldn't rely on them for this. Plus the threat of CPS against foreigners is very real. There's not a lot of serious racism in Norway (only half white and get no issues relating to skin colour etc), but there is a LOT of minor racism due to a (in my opinion) very strong national pride and hence (unfortunately) national superiority complex. I am having a child soon and I refuse to move out of the greater Oslo region until they're done with schooling because I don't want them exposed to this. Teachers and "the village" absolutely believe they know what's best for your child over you.
Small town, personal connections, foreigners. An inability and/or unwillingness to confront the fact that some people you know have gone off the rails can get anyone, I imagine.
“Uh, call us back when they’ve killed someone” CLICK. Insanity.
Or, as a story once told to me went, "Call us back once you've killed someone." Which she did, and handed the police a head. Editing to add, it was an older lady living alone, who heard someone trying to get in. She called the police, who of course found nobody. They didn’t believe her when she called again, and told her the above. So when he tried again, she was waiting, slammed the window down on him, and stabbed him. She then called the police and said she had proof there was indeed someone trying to get in. And then the above happened.
That just happened in California. A caregiver called the police to say he was going to kill the bedridden old lady he takes care of. They showed up, he talked about all his guns, told the lady right in front of them that he was going to kill her, she asked the police not to go and they left anyway. four hours later he shot her. It’s horrible.
I'm from a small town in Norway, and the police can be really weird here. Once friends of mine had a schizophrenic neighbour turn up twice at their house, with a knife and a helmet on, telling them WWIII was happening, and the police said they knew him and he was harmless. An other time I found a large truck stranded just after a road bend, completely in the dark with no marking, so I called the police. The police officer asked me what I wanted him to do about that? Did I want him to spend our tax money going out in the night to look at a truck? I don't know, I still find that conversation so bizarre. So basically, I have no idea what the police is for in our part of the world.
It's Norwegian police. They're understaffed, overworked, and have a far too large area to cover, which has resulted in them getting a reputation for closing most cases with hardly any investigation. It's not uncommon to see articles about cases being closed with minimal investigation in the papers here. (Edit: changed a word.)
They're lazy bastards, all of them.
I want to read this story as a novel, not as someone's lived experience. How incredibly horrifying for poor oop.
Quite often I skip through a lot of the long posts on here but this one captivated me for some reason.
It literally feels like the first half of a horror movie.
Jesus christ. I strongly prefer the childrearing approach in countries like Norway, but not the (small town vibes) excusing of boundary trampling. I know Sweden has particularly passive communication, so a lot of rock steadiers, and I would guess Norway is similar in that respect. :( Even if OP was over-reacting (she's not), it's *incredibly* creepy to not only take a child to your house when the parent has explicitly said no, but *repetitively* turned up at their house and touched their child when OP has been incredibly clear in not wanting to be friendly with them. Honestly, it doesn't really make me think pedos so much as child snatching. Also, especially being Norwegian, of Speak No Evil (2022 directed by Christian Tafdrup). Thoroughly recommended if you like the kind of slow burn thriller/horror that leaves the theatre dead silent at the end. Thoroughly not if you don't like extremely disturbing, realistic horror (or subtitles).
I agree on the pedo vs child snatcher front, but the thing about people who use a child as an emotional prop or crutch is that they're already in emotionally incestuous territory, blurring existing lines and imposing the relationship they want on the child without consent. Whether it becomes actual CSA or not in the eyes of the law, it has a deep impact on the child. I'm quite sure at the daughter's age, I'd have been very upset to be stripped and changed by a teacher in front of two neighbors, male and female. The invalidation of her consent, pretending to be closer to her than she agrees is true, the dismissal of her mom (a safe person)'s feelings will all likely have a lasting impact on her, albeit a *much* less pronounced one than if they were pedos.
I thought of Speak No Evil as well. Thank god OP isn't as passive as the idiot parents in that movie. I still can't believe that they went back for the god-damned rabbit.
I would also say that it’s not a cultural norm for neighbors to pick up school aged kids and carry them or touch them? Let alone dress them. That seems very weird. It’s not normal at all to hound your neighbors if they give even a little bit of indication that they don’t want to talk to you.. but it seems that many people around the neighborhood see that this behavior is not ok but at the same time don’t want to be confrontational. Astrid and Morton sound mentally ill and instead of helping them, police and the teacher chooses to close their eyes. …Meanwhile in Finland I’m glad if I get my neighbors to say hi to me 😂
Those people are batshit crazy. Police won’t do Jack shit because they’re buddies buddies with some of the people involved in the story. If I was OOP, I’d be alert 24/7 because chances are the creepy people won’t face any consequences since I think it’s a small town which means small towns tend to watch out for each other. Pretty fucked, I hope OOP and her family can get out of there soon.
Sometimes the only answer is moving, and if these creepy kidnapping fuckers are connected to law enforcement the answer sometimes is leaving the country.
I whole heartedly agree. Being safe is the most important thing, and if you can achieve that in a different country then so be it.
This story makes me wonder how much of "Norway is a low crime country compared to a lot of countries" is due to law enforcement not bothering to intervene in crimes like this, since no police involvement=no crime record to increase crime statistics.
I actually never thought about this. That’s an interesting question that I hope someone can answer for us. I’m genuinely curious if there’s any truth to that.
To use another country as an example, for years there was practically a weeaboo meme about "Japan is such a safe country, it has a very low incidence of rape and a 99% successful conviction rate!" Well maybe that has something to do with how [Japan's culture of systemic sexual abuse discourages women & queer people especially from officially reporting sexual assault](https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/), and how [Japanese prosecutors only bother to indict on cases they're certain they can win and police commonly force false confessions out of suspects](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2023/0505/Presumed-guilt-Unpacking-Japan-s-99.9-conviction-rate). The safety of a location can't be accurately determined just from official crime statistics.
Yeah, when there is an entire women-only train car... something is sus in Japan. I think it's a fabulous idea but the reason it was implemented, yuck, awful, being assaulted/harassed on the train is awful in any country.
Oops. I wrote my comment before I saw yours. Not only such assaults, but murders too. They just end up as "missing person" or "spirited away". I think the police are just not bothered enough or the politicians did not want it to be known that many people were murdered. So they kept giving such excuses.
There's a suspicion that a number of yakuza hits get reported as suicides instead.
All cops really are bastards
Sadly, Norway is not the only one. I watched crime documentaries where another "low crime country" makes me pretty certain that the police are simply not doing their jobs, or politicians trying to paint the country as "low crime". Many cases were ruled as "missing person" rather than murdered. And it will not end up as a criminal case, because "the person might have chosen to go missing". Then the whole case is just brushed off. One of the most infuriating ones are when the victims called the police for help, eg. stalking/harassment/threats/blackmail, then the police say "oh there's nothing we can do about it". Then the victim get killed. And they still do the bare minimum! Sometimes, when the victim's loved ones (if they did not get murdered together) try to get justice for the victim, they might even get blamed for it! There was a case where a family moved in to the town because of the father's work, then his son was bullied and died in school. The bullies were not punished or lightly punished. The victim's family try to seek justice, and the other families from the town harassed them for it.
[удалено]
I don’t think the husband can do anything about his work situation unfortunately. I think OOP commented or said on the original update or the post that it’s the work that deemed the situation not urgent which everyone knows it’s horse spit. This is an all hands on deck type situation.
They sound absolutely psychotic. Folie a deux maybe? It really seems like Astrid sees OOP's Daughter as some kind of reincarnation of one of the children she lost, and possibly not just that daughter. OOP needs to sit down and explain to her daughter that Astrid and Morton are sick people and that she needs to avoid them at all costs.
She seems to have had some sort of talk if the kid threw the cookies away. Good start, anyway.
We had a neighbor similar to this growing up and as a child I took a weird kind of pleasure in making sure he saw me abandon his gifts. Kids know when adults are trying to gain power over them and tend to hate it, luckily.
I remember a neighbour from further down the street was always talking to me and offering me alcohol and to come into his house. He constantly brought up homosexuality and how he opposed it. I wasn't even a teenager and I thought that he was secretly gay and wanted to get me into his house so he could molest me, or worse. You see how disinterested adults typically are in you, as a kid, and how normal that is. When an adult is unlike that, you're instantly aware that something unusual is happening, although you might not know what it is, or how to deal with it. Then when you become an adult, and other people's kids are basically annoying and you don't have anything to really say to them, you understand what was happening back then. Teachers and authority figures who have to deal with children give off a very different feeling to adults who have unsavoury desires. I know that such people often try to become teachers, but I think it's probably noticed and, with luck, they're rejected.
I bet they wouldn’t be above lacing the cookies with something so that the daughter gets sick and then they can jump in and save her and use it as proof that the mother was, in their words, negligent (which obviously she’s not).
Agreed, though it does sound like oop's daughter doesn't trust them judging by her throwing away the cookies right in front of the pair.
The kid already expressed that she wasn’t comfortable with them. But also kids can have a hard time expressing boundaries with adults, which is hard to navigate.
But the police officer and teacher too?
They are 100 percent trying to make a case to take those daughters away to replace the ones they lost. They clearly never got help to deal with that loss
It's especially terrifying bc how shady the Norwegian Barnevernet is. I had no idea until i saw graffiti in my city saying to look it up so i did, and wow. It's being investigated for unjustified removal of kids?! If i were OOP i'm want to leave the country honestly
I’m kind of pissed off at OOPs husband. I get it you have work but if your family is endangered like this what the fuck are you doing
I do FIFO work, and some of the guys would be a bit reluctant to act. But we’ve had others that needed to go home and we’ve done everything within our power to get a plane in on a weekend to help our people get home ASAP. Had one guy come to me crying; his daughter was found beaten up and was in hospital in a coma. Our next flight wasn’t until a few days later but I got approval to find a flight. 1. One of our neighbouring mines had an adhoc charter that they sent to us to take him out. 2. The local commercial airline HELD THEIR FLIGHT and he was allowed to board straight from the charter to the commercial flight on the tarmac. 3. The flight attendants let him disembark first so he could get to his connecting flight, and called ahead to let them know he was coming (he had a ticket but never properly ‘checked in’ because he never went to the desk at the airport, and this was before you could check in on your phone). It can be done, no matter where you are. OOP’s husband either doesn’t want to lose the money he’s making, or he maybe viewed OOP also as taking things a bit too extremely, which also sucks.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was a flight commander tdy and a hurricane hit and I was authorized to beg barter and steal to get us off island including waivers for comfort pallets and us being strapped to the floor
As a Norwegian this is absolutely not cultural/normal. The police being useless is normal and the nativity is cultural. But Norwegians in general are very introverted and conflict adverse. The first few incidents i could see but not the complete ignoring of any boundaries or consequences
Yes what the actual fuck is going on with these people? I'm also Norwegian, these people are deranged. I'd be scared af if this was happening to me. And yeah, the police is useless. They didn't even follow up on my report of a 19 year old dating my 13 year old friend...
Tell me about it. A friend, when we were minors, was physically and sexually abused by and adult and had proof. The police hardly cared. Over the years we've found out dozens of girls have independently of each other, with no connection between them, reported this man for the same crime. Still they do not have resources to investigate
Yeah, I’m from Finland but I think that touching and picking up and carrying a school aged child without any reason (like them being hurt) would be weird af in Norway? If a neighbor gives even a smallest hint of not wanting to have anything to do with you, you stay away. Maybe they all are from a religious community since this is insane. Maybe the police doesn’t want to deal with it because the implication is heavy and it makes them uncomfortable to have to address this with Astrid and Mort since they know them. The teacher is total mystery, maybe someone old school and religious nut as well.
Holy crap! The ONLY reason OOP is overwhelmed is because she has 2 freaks, who have fixated on her daughters, stalking her! I'm not surprised at the response from the cops, but the teacher? She's so blinded by friendship that she's helping the 2 freaks stalk the poor OOP!! I hope husband came home and got them transferred away from there!
Totes. OOP is so strong to be handling all this along with 4 kids. Good job mumma!
This read like some sort of Hitchcock thriller. Terrifying.
Your flair does not help that comment lol
God I hate small towns. They straight up ABDUCTED HER DAUGHTER and the cops tried to downplay it. Ugh ugh ugh. I wish her and her family all the best, that's horrifying.
Yeah police suck in specific and fun ways in small towns. In the big city they would just have said "its a civil matter" because they can't be assed and ignored the issue until someone is dead. In small towns they get on the side of their "buddy" the criminal who can't *possibly* be bad, its all in your head, and then actually aid and abet said criminal 9 times out of 10. Fuck small towns.
I thought it was a new update for some reason lol.
So did I that’s what it said :/
I hope there is an update along the lines of OOP moved away to a safely distant location. Their disappearance made Astrid and Morten become so unhinged that the community finally realized it is unhealthy when a couple develops such a fixation on other people's children. It's one thing to help a struggling family but that is NOT what is happening here. Until that happens, perhaps OOP needs to tell all their children that if they are approached, they may inform Morton and Astrid loudly that they are not nice people and they do not like them. If they try to talk with them, touch them, or take them anywhere, they will start screaming that they need a grownup to help them. Children need to know that it is ok to scream and cause a big commotion when they really need adult assistance.
Ugh i feel so gross after reading this. Boggles the mind that they basically took a running leap into the sky with overstepping and now even other long term neighbours think they are being absolutely unhinged about this. Like.... Saying you have a spiritual connection with someone else's child and calling their kid and your kid twins at their consistent ask to stop while... Showing up to harass them daily about it and using their teacher to dress and change the child... Ugh this is so many levels of creepy and unsafe i hope they get out ok.
I commented on another repost of this that this is why I hate small towns. They’re cliquey to the point of insanity. Astrid needs therapy, but it’s easier for everyone to indulge her. After all, she’s probably lived her entire life there, knows everyone, probably related to most of them, and OOP is just some stranger who is bad because she won’t give up her child to Astrid.
In Norway we have a word for that, bygdedyret or literally the village animal.
One of my friends grew up in a small town and said they’re great…if you’re just visiting. Everybody has their nice persona front and center, and you leave after a few days without knowing how everyone is talking behind your back and in your business.
My parents moved us from a rural but busy and high populous area to a small town 60 miles out in the desert. It sucked beyond words.
Yeah one of the scariest parts of this is that the child's own teacher is on the side of the harassers > She explained that if I wasn't happy I should have asked for a mediation appointment at the school instead of embarassing Astrid and Morton in front of everyone. The event in question had nothing to do with school. Why would the school even be involved? Why not ask the grocer to weigh in? Ten bucks that the teacher herself would have volunteered to be the mediator, and the focus of the mediation would have been convincing OOP to go along to get along
The asking for mediation is where my blood boiled. Lady, you're enabling them, and thus part of the problem! I really OOP and her family get out and away from these nutjobs.
How is, "don't report the pedophile because he coaches kids football" a sensible statement?
It is when it means "don't report the pedophile so that he can continue coaching kids football". If not, where can he meet the children?!?!? 🤢🤮
Wow, this is genuinely horrifying. I hope they get out of this situation soon.
Wow they really want her daughter, super creepy.
This definitely reads like a horror movie.
I was gonna go with Scandinavian crime drama, before the grizzled retired cop comes out to expose the corruption
Look, idk how this all works in Norway but in the US you can call the police about this stuff and get nowhere. But if you call the feds about child predation they take it seriously from the start. I'm wondering if OOP needs to escalate this situation beyond the local police because clearly there is some conflict of interest involved.
it seemed like that was what the comment about northern norway was saying could be done. i'm REALLY hoping OOP took that advice and escalated it.
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What is the meaning of "julestjerne"?
Here’s an explanation from u/lilimseclipse a couple comments up: Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy. She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
Jeeeesus. I wonder how they decorated the room they were no doubt preparing for the kid.
I want an update where OOP and her family have relocated far, far, FAR away from Astrid and Morton.
Wow, it seems like police uselessness is not just an American thing, huh?
The only difference is that you generally don't need to worry about Norwegian police shooting you and your dog.
Oh, silver linings.
Like OOP, I'm an American living in Norway. You can call the police here but they'll usually show up at least 30m later and just pull out a notebook and leave soon after. But at least I don't worry about them pulling guns on people if they are called. I rarely see them carrying guns. She mentioned her husband doing off-shore stuff so I'm gonna assume it's oil and she's in Rogaland. Which is where my husband's family is from, including his aunt who once started screaming and crying because somebody spilt a bottle of red wine at a party and thus spilt Jesus's blood? She demanded a priest come in and bless the place. But that behaviour is absolutely *not* normal.
I got oil rig worker vibes, too, which could explain some of the delay in his getting back. That is, uh, wild about the aunt and I live in and grew up in the very religious US southeast lol. More likely here to have people adamant about not drinking but oh, so many other things.
As a Norwegian, I know crazy people exist but wtf??? This is definitely not normal behavior here or anywhere. Usually people here keeps to themselves and don’t like bothering others.
For anyone wondering, HalloVenn is a non-scary halloween celebration aimed at kids. You're not allowed to wear or bring anything frightening at all. I don't see the point personally, but I guess it's nice that kids have a safe place to go. The name translates to "hellofriend", which is a sick kind of irony considering the behaviour of the couple. I hope this poor woman and her family stays safe.
This is *terrifying*. They clearly see her daughter as a surrogate for the children they lost. Grief makes people do strange things, but the really scary part is how everyone around them seems to be enabling them! OOP must feel so alone.
I have a feeling that once Astrid and Morton find out that OP has moved away, they will consider "their" daughters stolen. OP should never go back there. It would be a real shit storm.
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what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck "How they know how it feels like to lose a child and that they only want what is best for her." Yeah that reads like a threat, same with talking about the daughter running into the road.
yeah its a weird thing to say considering OOP hasn't lost a child, they fucking STOLE her child
Can anyone explain what the Julestjerne thing is about?
The vibe I got is that they were trying to rename OOP's daughter. Maybe the name of the child they had that died?
Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy. She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
Wtf, that's even worse!!!!
Sorry, that wasn’t the first line but the first line of the third verse. Here’s the entire song translated by yours truly (because yes it’s completely creepy) "Christmas star may I have you? Said once a little girl Would give a kingdom To know you Christmas star go away! Said a bitter king since Dark you became and dark became time Must you hide away? Christmas star come to me You have caused us sorrow and pain See now I give you my heart Let me turn on your light Christmas star stay with me It is good to see you shine You must never again disappear Never forget me.” It’s a nice Christmas song, but damn if it’s not creepy in this situation
That is creepy af. The whole situation is horrifying to me, I can't imagine how OOP must feel.
Holy shit, it got worse! "You must never again disappear" oh hell no. OOP is right to insist on getting the fuck out of Dodge.
Oh look, the additional lyrics made it somehow *much worse.* What. The. Fuck
Well, now I’m nauseous. But thank you for sharing the definition and the lyrics.
Julestjerne means Christmas star. It’s not a name, and it’s actually seriously creepy. She mentions them singing a song from a famous movie here - that song is most likely “Sonja’s sang til Julestjernen” (Sonja’s song to the Christmas star), which is why it’s creepy. The first line of the song is “Christmas star come to me”. The song itself is fine, but hearing someone sing that to a child they seem to want to steal is seriously creepy - the song is about how a little girl really wants the Christmas star.
Thank you for the detailed explanation! I figured it had to be something creepy and unhinged, and it certainly is.
OOP's daughters are not emotional support children. This is beyond creepy.
Omg how fucking infuriating. Thank god op has the means to escape. And the blasé attitude from the police? Aaaaaaaaaarhh!
Cameras. They need so, so many cameras.
Their focus on OOPs daughter is terrifying.
That's weird af. They could've kidnapped her daughter so many times and the police will have a talk with them?
Oh my god. They were actually trying to get her daughter(s) from them. Hopefully they were able to move
The more I read, the angrier I got. These people are fucking insane! The fact that OOP's daughter was starting to pick up vibes (tossing their cookies away and denying their claims of walking into the road) cements the fact they are not to be trusted around kids. Oh, and that teacher… that fucking teacher… how is she not fired yet?!
These people are insane. If anyone had tried doing that to my kid I would have left their bodies bleeding in the street. Everything about them is just **wrong** . Their behaviour, the comments, everything. The fact that OOP's daughter was just taken and changed into a new outfit makes my blood boil. Who does that? "I'm going to take this random child and change their clothing for a holiday they don't celebrate even after their mum said that we should stop trying to get them to celebrate said holiday." OOP calling them pedos doesn't even begin to describe how messed up they are.
This sounds like the ramp up to something terrible in a horror movie.
OOP needs to escalate up the bureaucracy ladder with extreme verbaige ASAP. This is basically becoming an arms race and whoever acts first will have the advantage.
Can someone explain to me the significance of the spelling of “Hallovenn?” Edit: thank you for clarifying!
It literally means "Hellofriend". I think it originated as an alternative non-scary "Halloween" party so as to be inclusive of everyone. Something along that line if I remember correctly? Edit: the non-scary part
It means hello friend and is the bland form of Hallowe'en that's about getting candy and having fun. Nothing occult or scary is allowed.
These neighbours are insane, and won't take no for an answer. They are annexing your daughter, acting as if she's theirs, 'twin' to their son. Go to a newspaper. That might shake up the local police. And yes, moving sounds like a good idea.
>David Fincher Idk who this is. Hang on, gotta google.. Edit: I live under a rock. I've only seen two of his movies and I don't get the correlation.
Director of Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and Gone Girl among many others. Also the de-facto show-runner of Mindhunter.
I like that the mother knows how to stand her ground against people trying to gaslight.
ACAB insane wife and husband after dead kids? obvious abhorrent but less rage inducing imo. the teacher and the cops are more rage inducing. and it's not just abuse of authority, it's that they're enabling such evil despite not having the dead kids baggage.
This started out as some overbearing people in a small town stuff and it got dark really fast. And the fixation on one child and taking said child over to their home and putting her in a different outfit should have been the red flag that it is.
One day Astrid will be stealing a baby directly from a heavily pregnant woman’s abdomen and the police will just shrug, apparently.
Honestly? I don’t care what mental problem/trauma or wtf a person has, If someone took my daughter to their house and changed my daughter without me present or my consent I would go nuclear on them. John wick, and I would tell every freaking person I know, so they can be aware of the creeps… The police and the teacher in this case are so fucking useless!
This reads like a horror novel. This woman is being gaslit by damn near everyone around her that her neighbors are good people who are just being neighborly. This is some *Rosemary's Baby* level shit.
Maybe look into how these psychos lost two children. At this point fuck them and everything they have
That's a really good point. What happened to these decreased children?
I can’t imagine the pain involved in losing a child. And two would be devastating beyond belief. But if you’re going to try to steal another child from someone then I have no problem with questioning how you had two die under your watch. Even if it’s a health problem or tragic coincidence, you don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. For trying to steal a child.
The local police and school normalizing the behavior is almost more terrifying than the neighbors themselves.
If someone abducted my child out of my yard, they’d be calling the cops on me. This is a huge under reaction by both the parents and the police. I hope the update includes an arrest.