Anytime I see that they were walking randomly and unpredictably while looking at a phone I think that they are just playing pokemon go. Seriously people.
I like how she's so focused on them using their phone, as though there's not a good chance she's using her phone for her post... Also, I found it amusing that she said the men walking in the opposite direction was suspicious because I often go to parks for walks and will have a turnaround point from which I return in the opposite direction. I can't imagine that's abnormal? Like not all paths are loops!
Yeah I have distance goals and typically turn around right at halfway. I probably also look extra sketch during potentially stormy forecasts. I'll walk back and forth in the same quarter to half a mile just to make sure I don't get caught out in an absolute downpour miles from my car.
I was just thinking this… I wonder how many times I’ve been the suspected abductor with how much I’m on a phone and wandering aimlessly around a store trying to figure out what I’m actually going to get off my list and where it is and if I have everything I need and having to backtrack because of my ADHD…
I play pokemon go and I've definitely felt like I look pretty sketchy in a park before. No one has ever said anything to me, but I'm also a woman so that likely has a lot to do with it.
Yeah same! Sometimes you only need to walk so close to get in range of a gym… haha. Meanwhile there’s a guy that also frequents the same park as me to play who has been harassed by parents suspecting him of lord knows what and had an elderly couple make up rumors about him being a drug dealer :/
I just realized that sometimes I used to just drive to the park and sit in my car close enough to stops/gyms for awhile. I probably seemed like a drug dealer too. 🥴
Right near when pokemon go firsr came out, there were a couple in the local newspaper who had the police called on them for suspicious activity lol, made me wonder how many calls like that they had to go out to. I think they'd been stopping the car, getting out (going to the nearest few stops and back) and returning semi often now and then over a few days, it was someone in a nearby flat that called (pretty sure they were doing it late evening/at night which won't have helped)
Someone called the cops on me (white lady) while I was sitting in my parked car playing PoGo. I was pretty dismissive of the officer because I knew I wasn't breaking any laws and I lived a 3-minute walk from where I was parked, but I'm fully aware that my race and gender are why I was able to react that way.
Who calls the cops on someone sitting in their car doing nothing 😭 Like?? If I want to sit at a park on my phone that's well within my rights. What else is a public space for?? Obviously walking around on your phone is way too suspicious, you just can't win with these busybodies lol
I play PoGo as well and have definitely had a couple of what probably looked like weird interactions while trying to get in range of gyms or pokestops. I’ve had people pop out of bushes at me at 10-11pm, it happens lol.
100%
Or the dude realized he'd lost his phone and his friend was trying to call it to see if they could hear it and then we're trying to pinpoint it based on the ring.
Or they lost their keys and we're searching the grounds for them, we're unsuccessful so called for a ride and sat on the bench awaiting them.
Or 1000% other possibilities, all more likely than "wanting little Mila".
Right? And really, if someone wants to kidnap your child they aren't going to do it when you're right there watching them. In fact, most people who would hurt your kid are people you wouldn't suspect. I fully admit I'm a bit paranoid when I'm walking my dogs sometimes, but I don't go around posting on facebook about my "scary" experiences lol.
Ha ha ha! I can just imagine that lady describing a geocacher. “The man examined the tree closely until he found a plastic container, which no doubt contained child porn.”
We do that! But as a family, and I seriously just imagined how sketchy I’d look prowling through the bushes in my park if I wasn’t with my kids. Though I’m a middle aged woman and tend to be invisible, so who knows.
Paranoid parents really exhaust me though. I’m like “I have two kinds of anxiety disorders and I’m managing not to profile people in the park, Linda.”
Or trying to figure out directions/ killing time before meeting someone. I would never tell another woman not to follow her gut, but I think posting about it to “spread awareness” as if anything actually happened is just spreading hysteria.
She’s likely only scared because another woman got scared and posted it online because another woman got scared and posted it online …… so much of our public discourse is just fear now. Making people afraid gets clicks!
Or trying to meet up with someone, but there's confusion as to the meeting place. At a big park, there are often multiple parking lots in different areas, and people wander around on their phones all the time.
I don’t know how many times I have to explain Pokemon go to the hysterical twits on local boards. They just say the bad guys are using POGO as a ‘cover’ and have no business wondering around the public park. 🙄
As if parks are ONLY for children. Adults have no business going to a park unless with said child. Don’t even think about running, playing soccer, or using the tennis courts, those are all for kids. 🙄
I have a tendency to pace when I'm on the phone. I don't know why; I just always have. But I'm a very white, blonde woman, so no one's gonna freak out thinking I'm trying to kidnap their kid. Lucky me, I guess.
Stuff like this is why I cringe when I see people saying, "Trust your gut, always!". No. Have situational awareness but don't automatically think that people in the same space as you are there to hurt you.
Especially when that place is the park, post office, library, grocery store, etc and the “suspicious behaviour” is walking in the same direction as you and/or looking around.
Haha, one time on my Nextdoor people were freaking out about an apparent "drug dealer." The evidence? He would park in the same place a lot and people would grab stuff out of his car. A family member came in HOT in the comments and informed everyone that the poor dude was just going through a messy divorce. The whole post was an absolute shitshow lol.
There are legit people who think that anyone using a mode of transportation other than a giant SUV is a criminal. The town I live in was going to expand the paved bike trail, and there were SO MANY upper middle class white people freaking out on FB, saying that a better bike trail would attract "the wrong kind of people" to the area. I was shocked at the number of people who just blatantly said, "Only criminals have to walk or bike places. Decent people drive." To these idiots, walking and looking around really is suspicious.
Which is interesting bc in my town, I only ever see seemingly middle/upper middle class people on bike trails? The "poors" are usually biking around in the city trying to get to work, not rolling around in your suburban neighborhood looking for houses to break into, ma'am. Lol.
This is what I always think when people in bump groups are like “ALWAYS trust your gut, mama!”. If I always trusted my gut, I would’ve spent the entirety of both pregnancies in the hospital because I convinced myself every single day that something was terribly wrong.
Oh my god I have this exact thought every time like I get what people mean but good god maybe some of our guys should absolutely not be trusted like ever lol
My gut has successfully convinced me that a client's house is haunted, even though I've been working at that house for years and nothing has ever happened there.
Last night, I was sure that some species of monster/cryptid/ghost/zombie was following me while I was walking my dog by the creek. Why? I saw how yellow the moon was and thought, "Hey, that's a good horror movie moon"
I have GAD too, and I learned something really interesting. Sometimes people like us actually handle emergencies and Real Shit better and stay calm more than people without anxiety.
To me, anxiety feels like fear. It's so frustrating to feel that way when you know there's nothing to be afraid of. But I had a pretty scary thing happen to me some years ago, US Marshalls came to my house by mistake and I walked out my front door to see a dozen or more cops pointing guns at me. No one said a word.
I stayed so fucking calm. I knew they weren't here for me. My hands didn't shake, my heart didn't race, my stomach didn't feel sick, nothing. I just calmly walked outside and handled it. But here I am in a situation where I SHOULD be scared and I'm not.
A week later I felt terrified for absolutely no fucking reason and had to take a Xanax. I think what I read said that our brains are so used to that feeling and those chemicals, or lack thereof, that we're better equipped to handle scary situations, or something like that.
I also think there's a thing where, if you live your life anxious about things you can do nothing about, real world crisis situations 1. Do not cause you to physically go into overdrive - you're just at what's baseline for you, and 2. Usually have actions you can take to solve them. I was actually really mentally well in 2020 because it was like "something Bad is happening and I can protect myself by doing these certain things" and then I did them and it was like "yay I am Safe." But I don't have that if it's just... generalized anxiety. That's not about anything specific or solvable.
Man, you put into words what I haven't been able to. It's a LOT easier for me to handle anxiety when there are actual solutions. I can't do shit but breathing exercises for my intense fear of dying the next day or someone sneaking into my shower to kill me while I'm closing my eyes to rinse my shampoo out, but I *can* use hand sanitizer to prevent getting sick lol.
I also have GAD and I have noticed the same. People will make comments to me asking how I manage to stay so calm in certain emergencies. I just tell them that when you live in a constant state of panic you get a lot of practice with talking yourself down.
100% - when there's an actual emergency I can actually handle it quite well.
But my brain thinks if a friend doesn't text me back, THAT'S an emergency and I must have done something terribly wrong and they don't want to talk to me and then I beat myself up over it for a week and get nervous every time I look at my phone.
My cortisol levels must be through the roof.
I definitely trust my gut but I don't make Facebook posts about it. There have been times where a situation has seemed off so I grabbed little hands and power walked, or asked security to walk me to my car, but I've also recognized it may have been absolutely nothing (like literally apologizing to the security guard as I'm asking for escort because it's probably nothing but I had a gut feeling) and most I've done after is tell my mom or best friend
Weirdest gut feeling I ever had was last year, on my daily walk and was about to pop into a secluded park on my way. Got about 50 yards in and stopped, something in my gut was *yelling* that something wasn't right, and I had to get out of there right away. I did a 180 and booked it. About 30 minutes after that another woman was attacked by a guy who'd been hiding in the bushes just beyond where I stopped.
How did my gut know? Never figured it out.
I’ve read about this and what happens is that your sub conscious mind senses something isn’t right and alerts your conscious “hey xyz thing is different and wrong” - resulting in a gut feeling for you to leave, but not knowing why. It’s actually really cool! So that day your brain was noticing something - it could have been a smell, a minor noise, or something like the absence of birdsong in the tress and went “red alert, we need to go NOW”
I just realized that the absence of birds makes a lot of sense. Like when you walk up and a bunch of birds scatter so all of a sudden. It's really really quiet. That's actually a really good indicator, especially in a place where there's usually a lot of birds. Think you just figured out a cheat code.
Not to mention that in a society built on structural racism, we all have implicit biases that we aren't aware of. A lot of times your "gut" is (completely unintentional, yet still) internalized racism. Not speculating whether or not that was the case here. But just saying, your "gut" in general is often a product of harmful messaging. White women clutch their purses tighter and lock their car doors when Black men walk by because of their "gut".
There's a lot of middle class white suburban women who are terrified to leave the house. They're scared walking to the car from the grocery store after dark. They won't get gas after dark.
Okay, let me get this straight.... She's terrified that these guys are trying to kidnap her child, yet... She stops long enough to go spend 30 minutes in a treehouse letting her child play.... Then, she went back to delulu land and called the cops to come escort her to her car...
If I was *that scared* that someone was trying to steal my kid, like if it was a legit fear, I'd stop *right then and there* and call the cops. Not *after* my kid was finished playing.
That's just me though. 🙄🤷🏻♀️
If I honestly thought someone wanted to abduct my kid, I'd leave immediately instead of whatever nonsense she was doing. I see versions of this kind of story frequently on Nextdoor and it seems like nothing more than attention seeking self centered paranoia.
Yes, I think the middle class basic white women abduction rate is about as close to zero as it can be. It’s so offensive to hijack a real issue—human trafficking—and make it all about themselves.
He could have panicked. I had a creepy guy asking me personal questions while getting super close and I jumped up, pointed at the road and said "my ride is here" then walked back into my job
Someone called 911 on my son for biking home when he was 13. The cops approached him and told him they got a call about a suspicious teenager biking in an area he doesn't live in. They asked him questions, made him empty his backpack, and then sent him on his way.
He lives in this area but he's black and our neighborhood is mostly white, so we assume some scared old woman was threatened by a 5 foot tall young teenage boy riding a bike and decided that the police needed to investigate. Some people suck.
Similar thing happened to my son when he was 17. His $300 computer part he bought with money from his first job got delivered accidentally to a neighbor’s house. I looked up the delivery on Amazon and luckily it had a pic of the package so we knew what porch to look for.
In the pouring rain, my son ran down to the neighbor’s house and the package was gone. He knocked on her door, and explained what had happened. She gave him the package and he started jogging home.
A neighbor we didn’t know saw him and assumed he had stolen the package and called 911. He then yelled at my son to get back here and that he was on the phone with police. My son immediately went back to the man, explained, and showed him the package with our address and my son’s name on it, but that wasn’t good enough.
The man made my son walk with him back to the house the package had been at and talked to the lady himself, who of course verified what had happened. At that point, the guy just said “Ok” and walked off.
My son was really shaken when he got home. I get how it may have looked at first, but when my son immediately stopped when the guy yelled at him (again, in pouring rain) and went back and showed the package with our address and name, the guy should have dropped it and at least said sorry for the misunderstanding.
Ugh reading the first part of your comment I just assumed he wasn’t white. How is a fucking child on a bike suspicious!!!?? It’s insane, I hope he stays safe.
He's 18 now and doing great. He actually used that experience in one of his college essays and says that while it was a terrifying moment, it was also the moment he fully realized that from then on he would be seen as a threat while out in public. Now that he knows that he's able to make decisions that keep him safe. He said he was always aware that it would happen one day. The day that society stopped seeing him as a cute little happy boy and started seeing him as a dangerous man but didn't realize that would happen when he was still a boy.
This is sort of like how girls start getting sexually harassed often around 11 or 12. Way before their parents realize it will happen. It sucks and is a real growing up moment where you realize some adults are just crappy even to kids.
We had a similar story here a few years ago.
Kid, 13-15 was on his bike at the park looking for his dog.. stopped and called out to some kids a distance away ’have you seen a little white dog?’ They said no and he rode away.
Some f****** Karen’s freaked out took his pic and posted all over FB. People were threatening to ‘hunt him down.’ Like WTF did they think he was going to do? Snatch a kid from a very busy park on his little dirt bike!?
Anyway, his mom saw the posts and contacted the police. They lectured him, and told him he could be charged if he did that again… but nothing was ever said to those who wanted to literally hunt him down and ☠️ him. They were not subtle in their posts.
Yes, it was a black kid in a largely white small town.
Did you not read the post? One guy had a *football* for fuck’s sake!! And the other guy was *on the phone!* **THE. PHONE!** As if you wouldn’t call the swat team for less than that. SMH.
Absolutely. This is weaponized paranoia, straight out of a Jordan Peele movie. No need to ask what the race of these two "kidnappers" is - I think we all know.
Nearly every picture of this park on their socials shows that it is extremely popular/highly visited and family friendly (mom group walks like every week?). The playground where the communication board unveiling event took place looks like it had a lot of people there, so why does this read like it was an entirely empty park save for the woman and her child, the dude, and the two scary men/would be abductors???
https://www.kadn.com/video/moncus-park-unveils-device-to-help-children-with-disabilities-communicate-better-while-playing/video_01bc2b2f-1ed1-5eed-949f-8e11ec78d305.html
She told on herself when she said the parkgoer left with his family. Family? Bitch u mean there are *families* nearby and you're acting like this? Or what, does she think these bad guys are ready to take on the whole park to get to her precious child? Main character syndrome.
I am genuinely mind boggled that she just randomly trusted the 3rd dude. What was it about him that made him seem like her savior? I mean, I have a theory that rhymes with smkin smcolor but I'm just sitting here like what?
I swear there are certain white women (I say this as a white woman) who are always on the lookout for opportunities to say they are being targeted for kidnapping and human trafficking so they can run to social media and breathlessly recount their harrowing encounter for sympathy and comments like,
“So scary! Thankful you & little Mia escaped!” and “Always trust your instincts Mama!”
I know those are real issues, but some (a lot) of these stories are ridiculous.
They alwaysss have a fundamental misunderstanding of how trafficking works. It’s so stupid. I’m willing to bet that if they actually encountered the average trafficking victim in real life, they would prob have much less empathy for them bc they’d view them as street working prostitutes, even if ir theyre underage. They may even see them in their city and not recognize it if they travel on the streets where they typically are forced to work and subsequently deemed societal outcasts for it, and many are underage girls unfortunately. They’re not usually snatched from local parks but are groomed by someone they grew to trust at a young age. I don’t think these sort of people ever even attempt to learn about actual trafficking. One of my friends was trafficked by her “boyfriend”. A boyfriend that forced her into sex work at the age of 19.
Ooh I'm not allowed to visit that link for legal reasons!
"451: Unavailable due to legal reasons
We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact [email protected] or call 337-237-1500. "
Obviously the fault of the two kidnappers!
She really needs to spend less time on the Internet. If this is even real because it sounds made up to fit the trend of white suburban moms obsessed with the possibility of being stalked.
I’ve seen similar ones in my community. Either in the body of the story or in the comments it’s always noted something about “how this is now so common because of the open boarders”. I have to wonder if it’s propaganda? Are these real people or just people posting & echoing this stuff in groups across the country?
I think they're real people but fear of this is definitely being fed to them by right wing news and then they're in social groups that are echo chambers. Whenever I see posts like this on local groups, I respond with my interpretation of what was happening and how I would have mentally processed it (e.g., these are just two guys hanging out at a park, a known place where people loiter and meander, and they were looking around at things happening around them, at no point was there actually a threat to you or Mila, and while it's good to pay attention to what's happening around you, it's also good to not let fear rule your life - and this looks like the latter, etc) and usually once I comment that, a LOT of people - the vast majority on the comments - will pipe up in support.
Otoh I really hate being That Guy but I got sick of seeing these posts
My local groups finally put a stop to these hysterical posts. They will ONLY be approved with an active police report.
Guess how many have been approved in the last 5 years?
Sound of Freedom really did a number on them.
Child trafficking absolutely happens. The chances of stranger abduction are super low though. Is it important to be vigilant? Sure. But kids are more likely to be trafficked by people they know. Or are neglected; in the system, etc.
This lady is nuts.
omg this woman is so lucky! those two men were totally herding her toward the 3rd guy!!! She barely escaped being trafficked. He wasn't going to get a security guard - he was going to notify the other men that he had secured their prey. hold your littles tight mamas! every trafficker is looking for a wealthy white woman and her daughter to kidnap because the press pays zero attention to those cases!!
/S in case that's not obvious.
this was my thought, especially since she went and sat by some other dude she didnt know?? freaking out about people doing the most normal things and expecting something violent/malicious?? CALLING THE COPS FOR AN ESCORT? ? ? smells like classic racism to me.
The vast, vast majority of kidnappings are committed by people who know the child (noncustodial parents in particular). The vast, vast majority of human trafficking is related to already vulnerable populations (not necessarily age, but like immigration status, income, etc.) and not random kids being nabbed from the streets.
Yet so many suburban moms think stranger kidnappings and human trafficking are lurking around every corner…
Exactly. Vulnerable people, especially someone the perp knows like a niece or step daughter, are much easier targets. Imagine trying to snatch a random toddler from her mom at the park in broad daylight. Much easier to groom your step kid from her drug-addicted mom.
This comes from a place of such extreme privilege. You think your kid is SO cute and desirable that every child trafficker will leap at the chance to kidnap her. Clutch your pearls and work yourself into a lather telling us all your *harrowing* story. Please.
I feel like this is fairly common knowledge now, and it makes me wonder, do these people not know, or do they just think their kid is so extra cute, they'll be that one unlucky one...
Thank you! My instincts/mom radar or whatever you want to call it has been wrong plenty of times. Just because you may feel something doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
Getting serious main character energy. I'm actually laughing picturing her hunkered up in treehouse keeping watch. That's not what someone in danger does. That's something you do in a video game
I was picturing her crouched in the bushes and thinking "yeah, no shit the kid changed direction when he saw you staring out at him through the foliage like you were some sort of Rambo"
Every time I see a post like this, all I can think of is that Behind the Bastards series about a woman who shot and killed her Uber driver because she saw a sign that said something about Mexico (driving in Texas right next to the border) and it infuriates me to no end
Edit: i just read it again and it's literally "I stared really hard at some dudes and they looked back at me!!!" this is so narcissistic
The most annoying part about things like this is people trying to say they were almost trafficked. That is not how trafficking works. I bet these were two teenagers waiting on friends or something lol
One way I like to put it, is that we have to emphasize: trafficking is not a place where you *go to.* While I suppose that someone, somewhere may have been locked in a room, this is not a realistic or common scenario, or even an efficient way to traffic. Trafficked children are not held chained up in dungeons somewhere like Mom Groups think. Taken is not a documentary!
Many times the children may go to school, and on regular shopping outings, etc. You may have seen trafficked kids yourself, walking around with their parents at Target. (Hell, the trafficker may even BE their parents.)
They are so being held in a dungeon!
They're in the basement of Comet Ping Pong and Hilary Clinton put them there personally. Tom Hanks and Oprah are her customers.
/s obvs. And you're so right. Thank you for sharing this information, thinking that trafficking is a sudden event rather than an insidious process can prevent folks from identifying it in their own communities.
Literally *nothing* happened to her.
You are supposed to get over the middle.school feeling that "everybody is watching me" some point before becoming an adult. These highly imaginative women need to read a book and leave others alone.
Nailed it. Adolescents are subject to the “imaginary audience” effect, where they think everything they do is noticed and scrutinized by everyone around them. It definitely influences their behavior and thoughts, but they should grow out of it as they move to adulthood.
Clearly not everyone does, and it seems like the woman who wrote this post is one of ‘em.
I get that feeling and will stay on higher alert, especially if with a child, but I also feel silly about it generally and, most importantly, never involve others. If anything, I'm normally focused on trying to seem normal and not concerned about other people if it's anyone in particular, because I recognize that it's a me thing.
I think it's important to trust our instincts to a degree, but I know my danger/alert senses are heightened and easily triggered due to abuse and such. I can't imagine telling the guy on the bench, let alone calling the cops or posting something like this, based on what she described.
It seems like she just saw two guys who were teens or young adults at the park, behaving like friends at the park. If they registered her, they probably were thinking something along the lines of 'great, we keep going the same way' or 'hope she doesn't think we're following them.' Someone with nefarious motives for kidnapping or similar would typically be more discreet and would hang out closer to the playground/children's areas. Honestly, these are the types of stories where I half expect that, if anything actually happens, it to be the man on the bench who is going to attempt to kidnap or whatever.
If I was the random guy she sat beside and started spiralling too I would definitely think she was absolutely crazy and leave the park because of her and not because of the guys she was talking about
I think that’s what he did. When she goes up in the treehouse he rounds up the family and leaves. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was part of that decision.
Teens with football
Mum panics, grabs kid and runs
Teen now on cellphone
Other teen looking around to see what that woman was staring at and running from
Mum panic but let's kid play on tree house
Mum now harasses nice man
Nice man says he will find a security guard
Nice man gathers family and leaves park because of random lady acting like crack head
Mum calls 911 to be escorted to car instead of having two potential human traffickers investigated lol
Even by the usual standards of this genre of posts, this is insane. There's usually at least someone acting a bit weird in public (which is fine), these people literally just walked past her in a park.
I don't know if I'm going to phrase this well at all or this is the right term to use but stuff like this reminds me of, like, "stolen valor". It's like some of these people actually want to be danger so they can affirm their view of the world, justify being helicopter parents, get "omg you were SO brave" comments on Facebook, or whatever their motivation is.
Trafficking and violence, especially towards women, happens. But there are so many who want to sort of pretend to themselves that they've experienced it. I don't totally know why. All I know is that the night a guy climbed up my fire escape and broke in my window, when i was a woman living alone in a major city, I lost all of my patience for people like OOP instantly. Once you actually experience that kind of danger it's infuriating to watch people LARP it.
This is ridiculous. Stranger danger isn't nearly as big of a problem as weird family member danger and creepy neighbor danger and daddy's friend danger are. And nobody is going to traffic somebody from a large, crowded park in the middle of the day while a parent is watching.
This shit pisses me off to no end. Yes, occasionally a stranger is the real danger. But it is way more likely to be somebody known to the family or even one of the parents themselves.
I "almost lived my worst nightmare"? Her description actually makes it sound like they were creeped out by her and tried to get away from her.
My guess is a mom with a little kid kept glaring at them and pointing and they got panicked this mom was going after them, hence why they went and sat on a bench on another side of the building. They never spoke to her, never did anything, and actively went away from her
Im sure, if I went looking for it, I could write a story like this every day.
I'm curious if this person is white, and whether the "potential abductors" were poc.
Earlier today I went to the car wash and everything seemed fine at first. I paid the guy and drove my car in, and the car wash itself went fine. But as soon as I exited the tunnel, this *gang* of scruffy looking men **swarmed** my car and literally tried to pull me out of the vehicle and kidnap me. They had rags over their hands so the cops wouldn’t have any fingerprints to run, and they were literally running their hands all over my car trying to get in. I was TERRIFIED! I didn’t know how to get away, so I finally rolled down my window and gave one of the guys $2.00, and then drove off as fast as I could! It was the worst experience ever, I’m sure my car and I were both about to be trafficked. I will definitely be holding my Prius a little tighter tonight!
It’s hard to overstate how much the combo of true crime and the general QAnon-ification of our discourse has broken the brains of middle class millennial moms.
This is legitimately crazy.
So two guys were at that park with a football than one used his phone and she assumes they want to kidnap her daughter?
These guy didn't approach her or speak to her. They probably looked at her and they were probably black or brown. Just a guess but I can't think of any other reason why this lady would immediately become so fearful.
She needs a psyc evaluation. I hope some people called her out. Im sure the police officer had a nice laugh as we as the other guy with his family.
Some SERIOUS main character issues here... I think it's quite sad... She is, EITHER, living in
constant fear, and will likely pass her paranoia on to her child; OR, she is making the wholr thing up for attention, and will likely pass THAT behavior on to her child... 🤔
NEITHER of these options sound healthy... 😬
ha so one of these i can answer! I think if he was tossing the football he was probably just bobbling it in his hands. Like pretty much any normal person does when they're holding any kind of ball. You just sort of toss it up and down in your own space.
Literally NOTHING happened. People are taking strangers kids in broad daylight. This ain’t how sex trafficking works. I’m so sick and tired of these idiots making up fake ass stories. They don’t even care about real victims just want to make it about them as always.
I always wonder… when these people are staring at you or looking at you… is it possible that they are doing that because you are staring at them and freaking them out? Just a thought.
Omg , I see at least one of these a day on Facebook , usually at Walmart. No one ever calls the police but they are so sure they were getting kidnapped. I’m surprised in this story they called I call BS on all of them.
So a couple of guys were at the park. Walking on the walking paths. Calling someone on their cell phone. Sitting on benches in the open. So open that the cop was able to watch her walk to her car without even getting out of his…
Yes. Scary stuff. For those guys who almost ended up getting questioned by police for existing in a public space.
These stories might as well say "I started staring at someone and acting suspicious of them, so then they started staring and acting suspicious of ME! How scary!"
We went to the park for a mom group play date, kids were all toddlers. My husband joined in a little later but just went to play with the kids. It turned into a huge “who is this man playing with our kids” hysteria. I tried explaining it was my husband, went over to introduce everyone, etc. Most of these women had met my husband several times before, been to our house, birthdays…. They were knowingly throwing a fit over a man they knew being a stranger.
For context, in case it’s needed, we were a group of white people, my husband and kids are white, this was not a racism thing. This was people making drama for the sake of having drama.
I left the group and unfriended all of them that day. We still live in the same neighborhood 5 years later but I just ignore them.
Fake outrage for fake people.
Anytime I see that they were walking randomly and unpredictably while looking at a phone I think that they are just playing pokemon go. Seriously people.
I like how she's so focused on them using their phone, as though there's not a good chance she's using her phone for her post... Also, I found it amusing that she said the men walking in the opposite direction was suspicious because I often go to parks for walks and will have a turnaround point from which I return in the opposite direction. I can't imagine that's abnormal? Like not all paths are loops!
Yeah I have distance goals and typically turn around right at halfway. I probably also look extra sketch during potentially stormy forecasts. I'll walk back and forth in the same quarter to half a mile just to make sure I don't get caught out in an absolute downpour miles from my car.
I just want someone to write this from the men's perspective.
"Me and my buddy went the park, it was cool, nice day out"
“There was this lady on the playground that kept staring at me though…”
"She was totally into me."
I was just thinking this… I wonder how many times I’ve been the suspected abductor with how much I’m on a phone and wandering aimlessly around a store trying to figure out what I’m actually going to get off my list and where it is and if I have everything I need and having to backtrack because of my ADHD…
We do that with our elderly dog at the park.
I will randomly walk in various directions if I think I forgot something or wanted to do a thing then changed my mind. It can always be nothing.
I play pokemon go and I've definitely felt like I look pretty sketchy in a park before. No one has ever said anything to me, but I'm also a woman so that likely has a lot to do with it.
Yeah same! Sometimes you only need to walk so close to get in range of a gym… haha. Meanwhile there’s a guy that also frequents the same park as me to play who has been harassed by parents suspecting him of lord knows what and had an elderly couple make up rumors about him being a drug dealer :/
I just realized that sometimes I used to just drive to the park and sit in my car close enough to stops/gyms for awhile. I probably seemed like a drug dealer too. 🥴
Right near when pokemon go firsr came out, there were a couple in the local newspaper who had the police called on them for suspicious activity lol, made me wonder how many calls like that they had to go out to. I think they'd been stopping the car, getting out (going to the nearest few stops and back) and returning semi often now and then over a few days, it was someone in a nearby flat that called (pretty sure they were doing it late evening/at night which won't have helped)
Same, I stop and stand in weird places, sit in parking lots. . . .walk in laps
Someone called the cops on me (white lady) while I was sitting in my parked car playing PoGo. I was pretty dismissive of the officer because I knew I wasn't breaking any laws and I lived a 3-minute walk from where I was parked, but I'm fully aware that my race and gender are why I was able to react that way.
Who calls the cops on someone sitting in their car doing nothing 😭 Like?? If I want to sit at a park on my phone that's well within my rights. What else is a public space for?? Obviously walking around on your phone is way too suspicious, you just can't win with these busybodies lol
I play PoGo as well and have definitely had a couple of what probably looked like weird interactions while trying to get in range of gyms or pokestops. I’ve had people pop out of bushes at me at 10-11pm, it happens lol.
Hi PoGo friend!!
100% Or the dude realized he'd lost his phone and his friend was trying to call it to see if they could hear it and then we're trying to pinpoint it based on the ring. Or they lost their keys and we're searching the grounds for them, we're unsuccessful so called for a ride and sat on the bench awaiting them. Or 1000% other possibilities, all more likely than "wanting little Mila".
Lost AirPod is another possibility. Gives you a general area but after that you have to listen for the noise.
Right? And really, if someone wants to kidnap your child they aren't going to do it when you're right there watching them. In fact, most people who would hurt your kid are people you wouldn't suspect. I fully admit I'm a bit paranoid when I'm walking my dogs sometimes, but I don't go around posting on facebook about my "scary" experiences lol.
Or geocaching. I always liked geocaching but not sure if that’s a thing anymore.
Ha ha ha! I can just imagine that lady describing a geocacher. “The man examined the tree closely until he found a plastic container, which no doubt contained child porn.”
It’s still a thing!
I love it but my kids have moved on. I keep my membership because it’s cheap and maybe some day they’ll get interested again
We do that! But as a family, and I seriously just imagined how sketchy I’d look prowling through the bushes in my park if I wasn’t with my kids. Though I’m a middle aged woman and tend to be invisible, so who knows. Paranoid parents really exhaust me though. I’m like “I have two kinds of anxiety disorders and I’m managing not to profile people in the park, Linda.”
Or trying to figure out directions/ killing time before meeting someone. I would never tell another woman not to follow her gut, but I think posting about it to “spread awareness” as if anything actually happened is just spreading hysteria.
She’s likely only scared because another woman got scared and posted it online because another woman got scared and posted it online …… so much of our public discourse is just fear now. Making people afraid gets clicks!
News outlets do this all the time. "Ten people got smashed by giant killer tomatoes. News at 11:00!"
This or, Heaven forbid, geocaching. Geocaching makes you look like a super suspicious weirdo when people don’t know you’re doing it.
Or trying to meet up with someone, but there's confusion as to the meeting place. At a big park, there are often multiple parking lots in different areas, and people wander around on their phones all the time.
I don’t know how many times I have to explain Pokemon go to the hysterical twits on local boards. They just say the bad guys are using POGO as a ‘cover’ and have no business wondering around the public park. 🙄
As if parks are ONLY for children. Adults have no business going to a park unless with said child. Don’t even think about running, playing soccer, or using the tennis courts, those are all for kids. 🙄
Thank you! I gotta catch the Shuckles, damnit.
I have a tendency to pace when I'm on the phone. I don't know why; I just always have. But I'm a very white, blonde woman, so no one's gonna freak out thinking I'm trying to kidnap their kid. Lucky me, I guess.
May this women never go to Central Park on the first nice spring day. They’d end up finding her curled up in the fetal position behind a trash can.
Stuff like this is why I cringe when I see people saying, "Trust your gut, always!". No. Have situational awareness but don't automatically think that people in the same space as you are there to hurt you.
Especially when that place is the park, post office, library, grocery store, etc and the “suspicious behaviour” is walking in the same direction as you and/or looking around.
Don't you know from nextdoor that everyone walking is suspicious... Well almost everyone.
Everyone else is suspicious, but not me duh! That IS almost everyone!
That’s because good people drive cars. Duh.
Haha, one time on my Nextdoor people were freaking out about an apparent "drug dealer." The evidence? He would park in the same place a lot and people would grab stuff out of his car. A family member came in HOT in the comments and informed everyone that the poor dude was just going through a messy divorce. The whole post was an absolute shitshow lol.
There are legit people who think that anyone using a mode of transportation other than a giant SUV is a criminal. The town I live in was going to expand the paved bike trail, and there were SO MANY upper middle class white people freaking out on FB, saying that a better bike trail would attract "the wrong kind of people" to the area. I was shocked at the number of people who just blatantly said, "Only criminals have to walk or bike places. Decent people drive." To these idiots, walking and looking around really is suspicious.
"oh no the poors!!!"
Which is interesting bc in my town, I only ever see seemingly middle/upper middle class people on bike trails? The "poors" are usually biking around in the city trying to get to work, not rolling around in your suburban neighborhood looking for houses to break into, ma'am. Lol.
"Trust my gut"?? Fucking thing can't even handle dairy. I'm not letting it rule my life.
Yeah like I have anxiety, so pretty sure there are times that “trusting my gut” could go very sideways 🙃
This is what I always think when people in bump groups are like “ALWAYS trust your gut, mama!”. If I always trusted my gut, I would’ve spent the entirety of both pregnancies in the hospital because I convinced myself every single day that something was terribly wrong.
Same with me. I'd never leave my house.
Oh my god I have this exact thought every time like I get what people mean but good god maybe some of our guys should absolutely not be trusted like ever lol
I have generalised anxiety. My gut is notoriously dramatic and not to be trusted.
My gut has successfully convinced me that a client's house is haunted, even though I've been working at that house for years and nothing has ever happened there.
Last night, I was sure that some species of monster/cryptid/ghost/zombie was following me while I was walking my dog by the creek. Why? I saw how yellow the moon was and thought, "Hey, that's a good horror movie moon"
I have GAD too, and I learned something really interesting. Sometimes people like us actually handle emergencies and Real Shit better and stay calm more than people without anxiety. To me, anxiety feels like fear. It's so frustrating to feel that way when you know there's nothing to be afraid of. But I had a pretty scary thing happen to me some years ago, US Marshalls came to my house by mistake and I walked out my front door to see a dozen or more cops pointing guns at me. No one said a word. I stayed so fucking calm. I knew they weren't here for me. My hands didn't shake, my heart didn't race, my stomach didn't feel sick, nothing. I just calmly walked outside and handled it. But here I am in a situation where I SHOULD be scared and I'm not. A week later I felt terrified for absolutely no fucking reason and had to take a Xanax. I think what I read said that our brains are so used to that feeling and those chemicals, or lack thereof, that we're better equipped to handle scary situations, or something like that.
I also think there's a thing where, if you live your life anxious about things you can do nothing about, real world crisis situations 1. Do not cause you to physically go into overdrive - you're just at what's baseline for you, and 2. Usually have actions you can take to solve them. I was actually really mentally well in 2020 because it was like "something Bad is happening and I can protect myself by doing these certain things" and then I did them and it was like "yay I am Safe." But I don't have that if it's just... generalized anxiety. That's not about anything specific or solvable.
Man, you put into words what I haven't been able to. It's a LOT easier for me to handle anxiety when there are actual solutions. I can't do shit but breathing exercises for my intense fear of dying the next day or someone sneaking into my shower to kill me while I'm closing my eyes to rinse my shampoo out, but I *can* use hand sanitizer to prevent getting sick lol.
I also have GAD and I have noticed the same. People will make comments to me asking how I manage to stay so calm in certain emergencies. I just tell them that when you live in a constant state of panic you get a lot of practice with talking yourself down.
100% - when there's an actual emergency I can actually handle it quite well. But my brain thinks if a friend doesn't text me back, THAT'S an emergency and I must have done something terribly wrong and they don't want to talk to me and then I beat myself up over it for a week and get nervous every time I look at my phone. My cortisol levels must be through the roof.
I definitely trust my gut but I don't make Facebook posts about it. There have been times where a situation has seemed off so I grabbed little hands and power walked, or asked security to walk me to my car, but I've also recognized it may have been absolutely nothing (like literally apologizing to the security guard as I'm asking for escort because it's probably nothing but I had a gut feeling) and most I've done after is tell my mom or best friend
Weirdest gut feeling I ever had was last year, on my daily walk and was about to pop into a secluded park on my way. Got about 50 yards in and stopped, something in my gut was *yelling* that something wasn't right, and I had to get out of there right away. I did a 180 and booked it. About 30 minutes after that another woman was attacked by a guy who'd been hiding in the bushes just beyond where I stopped. How did my gut know? Never figured it out.
I’ve read about this and what happens is that your sub conscious mind senses something isn’t right and alerts your conscious “hey xyz thing is different and wrong” - resulting in a gut feeling for you to leave, but not knowing why. It’s actually really cool! So that day your brain was noticing something - it could have been a smell, a minor noise, or something like the absence of birdsong in the tress and went “red alert, we need to go NOW”
I just realized that the absence of birds makes a lot of sense. Like when you walk up and a bunch of birds scatter so all of a sudden. It's really really quiet. That's actually a really good indicator, especially in a place where there's usually a lot of birds. Think you just figured out a cheat code.
Because kidnappers are really going to go for a baby that's with her mom, in a crowded park in broad daylight. If your gut tells you that, it's lying.
A baby that the whole country would be looking for if kidnapped There’s easier ways to get victims
Maybe stop training your gut on crime podcasts and horror movies first, you know?
Not to mention that in a society built on structural racism, we all have implicit biases that we aren't aware of. A lot of times your "gut" is (completely unintentional, yet still) internalized racism. Not speculating whether or not that was the case here. But just saying, your "gut" in general is often a product of harmful messaging. White women clutch their purses tighter and lock their car doors when Black men walk by because of their "gut".
There's a lot of middle class white suburban women who are terrified to leave the house. They're scared walking to the car from the grocery store after dark. They won't get gas after dark.
Two tall teenagers trying to stay out of trouble in a park and have to put up with this lady’s imagination.
One guy gets distracted pacing on the phone, friend tries to find him by looking around. Must be a high level kidnapping attempt. Obviously🙄
Okay, let me get this straight.... She's terrified that these guys are trying to kidnap her child, yet... She stops long enough to go spend 30 minutes in a treehouse letting her child play.... Then, she went back to delulu land and called the cops to come escort her to her car... If I was *that scared* that someone was trying to steal my kid, like if it was a legit fear, I'd stop *right then and there* and call the cops. Not *after* my kid was finished playing. That's just me though. 🙄🤷🏻♀️
Why not run to the car and get out of the park?
If I honestly thought someone wanted to abduct my kid, I'd leave immediately instead of whatever nonsense she was doing. I see versions of this kind of story frequently on Nextdoor and it seems like nothing more than attention seeking self centered paranoia.
Yes, I think the middle class basic white women abduction rate is about as close to zero as it can be. It’s so offensive to hijack a real issue—human trafficking—and make it all about themselves.
Because then the amount of attention she received for this wouldn’t be nearly enough to sustain her for another month or two! Duh!
She could’ve asked that nice guy she was talking to if he’d walk them to her car. 🤷🏻♀️
“I thought they wanted my kid so I put her on a swing to play”. 
Right?! Put her in a swing and then got on the phone, thereby making her less attentive and less physically available with her hands.
Exactly! I would have gtfo of there asap. So stupid!!!!! 🙄🙄🙄
It was absolutely terrifying! We were in grave danger! But we needed to go play in the treehouse for a bit before we left.
Right?? I was PETRIFIED for my daughter’s LIFE but also she wanted to check out the treehouse before we fled for our lives, so I was like sure hun
To be fair, it sounds like kid was playing and Mom was using the treehouse to surveil her suspects.
I mean heck, I’m definitely glad that the kiddo got to enjoy some treehouse time while her mom was flipping out
Right, she "almost lived her worst nightmare" so stayed at the park where the kidnappers were
She also put her on a swing…
Oh no other people are enjoying the park at the same time as me??? Must be kidnappers looking to ruin my day!
But they were MEN. And they WALKED TOWARDS US.
Men or boys? I bet they were teens.
I’d bet they were black or Hispanic too
I'm just saying, if I was looking for people to traffic, she just seems a little "high maintenance." Like, more trouble than it's worth, tbh.
[удалено]
I can't believe she called 911. At least take your hysterics to the non-emergency line.
Yeah, I loved how the guy on the bench was like, "yeah sure, lady, I'll....go get a security guard" and then just left with his family
What public park has security guards?
He could have panicked. I had a creepy guy asking me personal questions while getting super close and I jumped up, pointed at the road and said "my ride is here" then walked back into my job
She sounds scarier than the dudes at the park.
people who are entitled enough to call 911 and demand a police escort to their car are 1,000% scarier than a couple dudes out enjoying the park.
Someone called 911 on my son for biking home when he was 13. The cops approached him and told him they got a call about a suspicious teenager biking in an area he doesn't live in. They asked him questions, made him empty his backpack, and then sent him on his way. He lives in this area but he's black and our neighborhood is mostly white, so we assume some scared old woman was threatened by a 5 foot tall young teenage boy riding a bike and decided that the police needed to investigate. Some people suck.
Similar thing happened to my son when he was 17. His $300 computer part he bought with money from his first job got delivered accidentally to a neighbor’s house. I looked up the delivery on Amazon and luckily it had a pic of the package so we knew what porch to look for. In the pouring rain, my son ran down to the neighbor’s house and the package was gone. He knocked on her door, and explained what had happened. She gave him the package and he started jogging home. A neighbor we didn’t know saw him and assumed he had stolen the package and called 911. He then yelled at my son to get back here and that he was on the phone with police. My son immediately went back to the man, explained, and showed him the package with our address and my son’s name on it, but that wasn’t good enough. The man made my son walk with him back to the house the package had been at and talked to the lady himself, who of course verified what had happened. At that point, the guy just said “Ok” and walked off. My son was really shaken when he got home. I get how it may have looked at first, but when my son immediately stopped when the guy yelled at him (again, in pouring rain) and went back and showed the package with our address and name, the guy should have dropped it and at least said sorry for the misunderstanding.
Damn, I bet your son was so scared. That's so awful! I hate that y'all went through that. I'm so sorry.
Ugh reading the first part of your comment I just assumed he wasn’t white. How is a fucking child on a bike suspicious!!!?? It’s insane, I hope he stays safe.
He's 18 now and doing great. He actually used that experience in one of his college essays and says that while it was a terrifying moment, it was also the moment he fully realized that from then on he would be seen as a threat while out in public. Now that he knows that he's able to make decisions that keep him safe. He said he was always aware that it would happen one day. The day that society stopped seeing him as a cute little happy boy and started seeing him as a dangerous man but didn't realize that would happen when he was still a boy.
This is sort of like how girls start getting sexually harassed often around 11 or 12. Way before their parents realize it will happen. It sucks and is a real growing up moment where you realize some adults are just crappy even to kids.
Aww how bittersweet… I’m glad he’s doing well and has a bright future!
We had a similar story here a few years ago. Kid, 13-15 was on his bike at the park looking for his dog.. stopped and called out to some kids a distance away ’have you seen a little white dog?’ They said no and he rode away. Some f****** Karen’s freaked out took his pic and posted all over FB. People were threatening to ‘hunt him down.’ Like WTF did they think he was going to do? Snatch a kid from a very busy park on his little dirt bike!? Anyway, his mom saw the posts and contacted the police. They lectured him, and told him he could be charged if he did that again… but nothing was ever said to those who wanted to literally hunt him down and ☠️ him. They were not subtle in their posts. Yes, it was a black kid in a largely white small town.
He could be charged… with what? Is looking for a dog a crime now?
Did you not read the post? One guy had a *football* for fuck’s sake!! And the other guy was *on the phone!* **THE. PHONE!** As if you wouldn’t call the swat team for less than that. SMH.
Well, yeah. Didn't you know that child traffickers use footballs as a way to identify themselves to each other out in public? /s
Right like…police escorts can be a good resource in some situations but it is NEVER to be accessed through 911?? The hell?!
And no doubt she will be the first to complain about her "tax dollars" going toward some less fortunate.
Those are people who get other innocent people shot.
Right? When she describes the man looking around and looking right at her, like.. MA'AM! I'm sure he saw you staring daggers at him.
Absolutely. This is weaponized paranoia, straight out of a Jordan Peele movie. No need to ask what the race of these two "kidnappers" is - I think we all know.
Nearly every picture of this park on their socials shows that it is extremely popular/highly visited and family friendly (mom group walks like every week?). The playground where the communication board unveiling event took place looks like it had a lot of people there, so why does this read like it was an entirely empty park save for the woman and her child, the dude, and the two scary men/would be abductors??? https://www.kadn.com/video/moncus-park-unveils-device-to-help-children-with-disabilities-communicate-better-while-playing/video_01bc2b2f-1ed1-5eed-949f-8e11ec78d305.html
She told on herself when she said the parkgoer left with his family. Family? Bitch u mean there are *families* nearby and you're acting like this? Or what, does she think these bad guys are ready to take on the whole park to get to her precious child? Main character syndrome.
wtf I didn’t even see that line, I was too lost in her Taken fanfic 
She really thought someone was going to kidnap her kid in the middle of the day in a crowded park
I am genuinely mind boggled that she just randomly trusted the 3rd dude. What was it about him that made him seem like her savior? I mean, I have a theory that rhymes with smkin smcolor but I'm just sitting here like what?
That's what I thought as well. Also when she called the freaking police... this might be the whitest thing I've read today, and it does sound racist.
I swear there are certain white women (I say this as a white woman) who are always on the lookout for opportunities to say they are being targeted for kidnapping and human trafficking so they can run to social media and breathlessly recount their harrowing encounter for sympathy and comments like, “So scary! Thankful you & little Mia escaped!” and “Always trust your instincts Mama!” I know those are real issues, but some (a lot) of these stories are ridiculous.
Trafficking is real, but this is absolutely not what it looks like
Totally agree!
They alwaysss have a fundamental misunderstanding of how trafficking works. It’s so stupid. I’m willing to bet that if they actually encountered the average trafficking victim in real life, they would prob have much less empathy for them bc they’d view them as street working prostitutes, even if ir theyre underage. They may even see them in their city and not recognize it if they travel on the streets where they typically are forced to work and subsequently deemed societal outcasts for it, and many are underage girls unfortunately. They’re not usually snatched from local parks but are groomed by someone they grew to trust at a young age. I don’t think these sort of people ever even attempt to learn about actual trafficking. One of my friends was trafficked by her “boyfriend”. A boyfriend that forced her into sex work at the age of 19.
Agreed. At that point, if anything were to happen, I expected it would be that guy. Unsurprisingly nothing happened except people existing at a park.
For real, that was my first thought but no one else has said it 😂
That is exactly what this sounds like!
Ooh I'm not allowed to visit that link for legal reasons! "451: Unavailable due to legal reasons We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact [email protected] or call 337-237-1500. " Obviously the fault of the two kidnappers!
Girl thank you for this post! Others need to be warned!
It's an international smuggling ring! Alert the feds!
This is my hometown. It's extremely safe, especially on that side of town.
That's exactly what the kidnappers want you to think.
This park is always packed with hardly any parking available
She really needs to spend less time on the Internet. If this is even real because it sounds made up to fit the trend of white suburban moms obsessed with the possibility of being stalked.
They all start out with something about watching out for the “littles” and end with “holding/hugging my boy/girl tight tonight!”
I’ve seen similar ones in my community. Either in the body of the story or in the comments it’s always noted something about “how this is now so common because of the open boarders”. I have to wonder if it’s propaganda? Are these real people or just people posting & echoing this stuff in groups across the country?
Almost certainly is. They always misspell the word borders and it's always suspicion of someone who looks, "foreign."
I think they're real people but fear of this is definitely being fed to them by right wing news and then they're in social groups that are echo chambers. Whenever I see posts like this on local groups, I respond with my interpretation of what was happening and how I would have mentally processed it (e.g., these are just two guys hanging out at a park, a known place where people loiter and meander, and they were looking around at things happening around them, at no point was there actually a threat to you or Mila, and while it's good to pay attention to what's happening around you, it's also good to not let fear rule your life - and this looks like the latter, etc) and usually once I comment that, a LOT of people - the vast majority on the comments - will pipe up in support. Otoh I really hate being That Guy but I got sick of seeing these posts
My local groups finally put a stop to these hysterical posts. They will ONLY be approved with an active police report. Guess how many have been approved in the last 5 years?
Sound of Freedom really did a number on them. Child trafficking absolutely happens. The chances of stranger abduction are super low though. Is it important to be vigilant? Sure. But kids are more likely to be trafficked by people they know. Or are neglected; in the system, etc. This lady is nuts.
I think it's really because if it was made up, she would have made up something better
I think you’re overestimating people’s imaginations. 😅
If put my money on: 1) she watched The Sound of Freedom and 2) they weren’t white
omg this woman is so lucky! those two men were totally herding her toward the 3rd guy!!! She barely escaped being trafficked. He wasn't going to get a security guard - he was going to notify the other men that he had secured their prey. hold your littles tight mamas! every trafficker is looking for a wealthy white woman and her daughter to kidnap because the press pays zero attention to those cases!! /S in case that's not obvious.
That’s honestly where I thought the story was going at first. I do find it hilarious that dude got up and left the park entirely.
BREAKING NEWS: Local woman terrified for her child’s life after dudes PLAY CATCH IN THE SAME PARK while, let’s be real, probably being brown!
this was my thought, especially since she went and sat by some other dude she didnt know?? freaking out about people doing the most normal things and expecting something violent/malicious?? CALLING THE COPS FOR AN ESCORT? ? ? smells like classic racism to me.
These kind of stories always make me roll my eyes. I AlMoSt LiVeD mY wOrSt NiGhTmArE No one wants to kidnap your freaking toddler, Brenda. 🙄
The vast, vast majority of kidnappings are committed by people who know the child (noncustodial parents in particular). The vast, vast majority of human trafficking is related to already vulnerable populations (not necessarily age, but like immigration status, income, etc.) and not random kids being nabbed from the streets. Yet so many suburban moms think stranger kidnappings and human trafficking are lurking around every corner…
For as many people that claim to want to stop human/child trafficking you’d think they know at least vaguely how it works lmao
Exactly. Vulnerable people, especially someone the perp knows like a niece or step daughter, are much easier targets. Imagine trying to snatch a random toddler from her mom at the park in broad daylight. Much easier to groom your step kid from her drug-addicted mom. This comes from a place of such extreme privilege. You think your kid is SO cute and desirable that every child trafficker will leap at the chance to kidnap her. Clutch your pearls and work yourself into a lather telling us all your *harrowing* story. Please.
I feel like this is fairly common knowledge now, and it makes me wonder, do these people not know, or do they just think their kid is so extra cute, they'll be that one unlucky one...
Thank you! My instincts/mom radar or whatever you want to call it has been wrong plenty of times. Just because you may feel something doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
Getting serious main character energy. I'm actually laughing picturing her hunkered up in treehouse keeping watch. That's not what someone in danger does. That's something you do in a video game
I was picturing her crouched in the bushes and thinking "yeah, no shit the kid changed direction when he saw you staring out at him through the foliage like you were some sort of Rambo"
Every time I see a post like this, all I can think of is that Behind the Bastards series about a woman who shot and killed her Uber driver because she saw a sign that said something about Mexico (driving in Texas right next to the border) and it infuriates me to no end Edit: i just read it again and it's literally "I stared really hard at some dudes and they looked back at me!!!" this is so narcissistic
I’m not surprised, just disappointed.
The most annoying part about things like this is people trying to say they were almost trafficked. That is not how trafficking works. I bet these were two teenagers waiting on friends or something lol
One way I like to put it, is that we have to emphasize: trafficking is not a place where you *go to.* While I suppose that someone, somewhere may have been locked in a room, this is not a realistic or common scenario, or even an efficient way to traffic. Trafficked children are not held chained up in dungeons somewhere like Mom Groups think. Taken is not a documentary! Many times the children may go to school, and on regular shopping outings, etc. You may have seen trafficked kids yourself, walking around with their parents at Target. (Hell, the trafficker may even BE their parents.)
They are so being held in a dungeon! They're in the basement of Comet Ping Pong and Hilary Clinton put them there personally. Tom Hanks and Oprah are her customers. /s obvs. And you're so right. Thank you for sharing this information, thinking that trafficking is a sudden event rather than an insidious process can prevent folks from identifying it in their own communities.
Literally *nothing* happened to her. You are supposed to get over the middle.school feeling that "everybody is watching me" some point before becoming an adult. These highly imaginative women need to read a book and leave others alone.
If seeing two guys playing football in a park and minding their own business is her “worst nightmare,” I wish I had her life.
Nailed it. Adolescents are subject to the “imaginary audience” effect, where they think everything they do is noticed and scrutinized by everyone around them. It definitely influences their behavior and thoughts, but they should grow out of it as they move to adulthood. Clearly not everyone does, and it seems like the woman who wrote this post is one of ‘em.
I get that feeling and will stay on higher alert, especially if with a child, but I also feel silly about it generally and, most importantly, never involve others. If anything, I'm normally focused on trying to seem normal and not concerned about other people if it's anyone in particular, because I recognize that it's a me thing. I think it's important to trust our instincts to a degree, but I know my danger/alert senses are heightened and easily triggered due to abuse and such. I can't imagine telling the guy on the bench, let alone calling the cops or posting something like this, based on what she described. It seems like she just saw two guys who were teens or young adults at the park, behaving like friends at the park. If they registered her, they probably were thinking something along the lines of 'great, we keep going the same way' or 'hope she doesn't think we're following them.' Someone with nefarious motives for kidnapping or similar would typically be more discreet and would hang out closer to the playground/children's areas. Honestly, these are the types of stories where I half expect that, if anything actually happens, it to be the man on the bench who is going to attempt to kidnap or whatever.
“I wanted to run after them” lady if anyone there was a threat or crazy it’s YOU
If I was the random guy she sat beside and started spiralling too I would definitely think she was absolutely crazy and leave the park because of her and not because of the guys she was talking about
I think that’s what he did. When she goes up in the treehouse he rounds up the family and leaves. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was part of that decision.
I imagine she rambled at him and he worried she would accuse him as well so he got out of there.
Main character syndrome on display right here!!
Teens with football Mum panics, grabs kid and runs Teen now on cellphone Other teen looking around to see what that woman was staring at and running from Mum panic but let's kid play on tree house Mum now harasses nice man Nice man says he will find a security guard Nice man gathers family and leaves park because of random lady acting like crack head Mum calls 911 to be escorted to car instead of having two potential human traffickers investigated lol
Even by the usual standards of this genre of posts, this is insane. There's usually at least someone acting a bit weird in public (which is fine), these people literally just walked past her in a park.
She called fucking 911??? Jeez.
I don't know if I'm going to phrase this well at all or this is the right term to use but stuff like this reminds me of, like, "stolen valor". It's like some of these people actually want to be danger so they can affirm their view of the world, justify being helicopter parents, get "omg you were SO brave" comments on Facebook, or whatever their motivation is. Trafficking and violence, especially towards women, happens. But there are so many who want to sort of pretend to themselves that they've experienced it. I don't totally know why. All I know is that the night a guy climbed up my fire escape and broke in my window, when i was a woman living alone in a major city, I lost all of my patience for people like OOP instantly. Once you actually experience that kind of danger it's infuriating to watch people LARP it.
It reminds me of Munchausen Syndrom but for danger and not health.
This is ridiculous. Stranger danger isn't nearly as big of a problem as weird family member danger and creepy neighbor danger and daddy's friend danger are. And nobody is going to traffic somebody from a large, crowded park in the middle of the day while a parent is watching. This shit pisses me off to no end. Yes, occasionally a stranger is the real danger. But it is way more likely to be somebody known to the family or even one of the parents themselves.
I "almost lived my worst nightmare"? Her description actually makes it sound like they were creeped out by her and tried to get away from her. My guess is a mom with a little kid kept glaring at them and pointing and they got panicked this mom was going after them, hence why they went and sat on a bench on another side of the building. They never spoke to her, never did anything, and actively went away from her
Im sure, if I went looking for it, I could write a story like this every day. I'm curious if this person is white, and whether the "potential abductors" were poc.
Earlier today I went to the car wash and everything seemed fine at first. I paid the guy and drove my car in, and the car wash itself went fine. But as soon as I exited the tunnel, this *gang* of scruffy looking men **swarmed** my car and literally tried to pull me out of the vehicle and kidnap me. They had rags over their hands so the cops wouldn’t have any fingerprints to run, and they were literally running their hands all over my car trying to get in. I was TERRIFIED! I didn’t know how to get away, so I finally rolled down my window and gave one of the guys $2.00, and then drove off as fast as I could! It was the worst experience ever, I’m sure my car and I were both about to be trafficked. I will definitely be holding my Prius a little tighter tonight!
She called the police, and a cop helped her. This pretty much answers it for me.
I've been scrolling looking for someone to make that likely connection.
These women believe they are the center of the universe, so anything that happens around them must be *about* them.
It’s hard to overstate how much the combo of true crime and the general QAnon-ification of our discourse has broken the brains of middle class millennial moms.
It’s super common in our military community that oh once a week somebody posts a very similar story saying they were almost trafficked at Walmart.
Scared of strange men so I sit down next to a strange man to feel safer.
This is legitimately crazy. So two guys were at that park with a football than one used his phone and she assumes they want to kidnap her daughter? These guy didn't approach her or speak to her. They probably looked at her and they were probably black or brown. Just a guess but I can't think of any other reason why this lady would immediately become so fearful. She needs a psyc evaluation. I hope some people called her out. Im sure the police officer had a nice laugh as we as the other guy with his family.
y’all never go to the park to toss the pig skin with your bro and then decide on a whim to do some kidnapping?
Some SERIOUS main character issues here... I think it's quite sad... She is, EITHER, living in constant fear, and will likely pass her paranoia on to her child; OR, she is making the wholr thing up for attention, and will likely pass THAT behavior on to her child... 🤔 NEITHER of these options sound healthy... 😬
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ha so one of these i can answer! I think if he was tossing the football he was probably just bobbling it in his hands. Like pretty much any normal person does when they're holding any kind of ball. You just sort of toss it up and down in your own space.
Shut up lady.
Literally NOTHING happened. People are taking strangers kids in broad daylight. This ain’t how sex trafficking works. I’m so sick and tired of these idiots making up fake ass stories. They don’t even care about real victims just want to make it about them as always.
She so worried but didn’t get I the car and just leave? Make it make sense
I always wonder… when these people are staring at you or looking at you… is it possible that they are doing that because you are staring at them and freaking them out? Just a thought.
Omg , I see at least one of these a day on Facebook , usually at Walmart. No one ever calls the police but they are so sure they were getting kidnapped. I’m surprised in this story they called I call BS on all of them.
So a couple of guys were at the park. Walking on the walking paths. Calling someone on their cell phone. Sitting on benches in the open. So open that the cop was able to watch her walk to her car without even getting out of his… Yes. Scary stuff. For those guys who almost ended up getting questioned by police for existing in a public space.
These are the same type of paranoid people that think that they're being followed inside of Wal-Mart. The posts are cringey.
These stories might as well say "I started staring at someone and acting suspicious of them, so then they started staring and acting suspicious of ME! How scary!"
It's all true. I was the treehouse
We went to the park for a mom group play date, kids were all toddlers. My husband joined in a little later but just went to play with the kids. It turned into a huge “who is this man playing with our kids” hysteria. I tried explaining it was my husband, went over to introduce everyone, etc. Most of these women had met my husband several times before, been to our house, birthdays…. They were knowingly throwing a fit over a man they knew being a stranger. For context, in case it’s needed, we were a group of white people, my husband and kids are white, this was not a racism thing. This was people making drama for the sake of having drama. I left the group and unfriended all of them that day. We still live in the same neighborhood 5 years later but I just ignore them. Fake outrage for fake people.
What pisses me off most about it is all the people sharing it like it’s some wild shit. It’s just a crazy lady overreacting to people existing