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While you may not be able to believe someone's story on Facebook, I did believe my own sister's story. She was in line at Target and the whole store shut down with police storming. They announced they were looking for a girl aged two with long blonde hair. They came to my sisters aisle as she was waiting to checkout and the mom yelled out, "my baby" to a little boy in jeans and short hair. They took the kid and it was told that they had found her clothes in the bathroom as well as her cut off hair and the tags of the new clothes she was changed into. They were apprehended and happy ending. So, stuff does happen.
You might want to reconsider your sisters veracity in the future.
A child thief would be up and gone, not performing a makeover in the bathroom to give the SWAT team a chance to storm the place.
Last edited by rugrats2001; 09-30-2017 at 09:09 AM..
MOst of these "attempted kidnapping" stories are fake.
Child traffickers usually target children who are alone, not with parents in a public place in broad daylight. Child trafficking is a bigger problem in third world countries.
These stories are made up by bored housewives who want attention.
I've read 4 stories on Facebook, that are all very similar, in the last 3 or 4 months.
The basic story is always a mother, in a store, and she notices someone paying too close attention to herself, or to her children.
In one story, it was a man and a woman. In another story, a man grabbed one of the kids and tried to walk away, and in the other stories, it's a guy standing too close to the kids or herself, thus creeping the mother out.
In the latest story, that I read today, the mother (posting on her facebook page) stated that she was at a Walmart with her 3 kids, when this guy started following them, and it eventually made her so nervous and creeped out that she called her husband, ( who apparently worked very close by, as he was there in 3 minutes.) who came to rescue them, and THEN they proceeded to tell the manager at Walmart about it. Then she stated that the police were called.
THEN it came out that Walmart had not called the police. The FB person said she THOUGHT Walmart had called the police, but then found out they hadn't, so SHE called the police instead, and they were currently going through video. That was apparently her last statement on the matter.
THEN it comes out, that the police know NOTHING about the whole incident, and THEN it comes out that Walmart calls BS on the whole thing, and says what DID happen, was that they had a shoplifting incident that same day...but that was it.
So...like I said, this is the 4th story I've read on FB, about some creepster following a mom and children around a store, and OMG! Be careful! stories.
Why am I posting this in Psychology? Because I'm thinking that human kind like to have their boogey men. For the life of me, I don't know how this woman thought she was going to get away with these shenanigans, unless she was using a fake facebook page...
But it strikes me that it's not a new phenomenon, it's just that now, things go viral, so there's always someone who will eventually call out the BS.
When I was in my 20's, and working in an office filled with women, we got a new employee, who was new to St. Louis area, from North or South Dakota...I forget which Dakota it was. One day, she went on and on about how bad the Indians were there, and how you had to REALLY keep an eye on your kids and babies...especially blond haired blue eyed babies, because the Indians would snatch and steal them away. And since SHE was a blond haired child, she always had to watch out for the Indians. Besides which, they're dirty, lazy, and blah blah blah.
People. I'M part NA. THIS wackadoodle BS was making my blood boil. I finally spoke up, interrupting her, telling her that I'M part Native American, and that her generalizations were hurtful, and most likely a pile of lies. It shut her right up. Well, truthfully, it shut everyone up for a couple of hours. LOL But again...a boogey man story.
When slavery was rampant, it was the animalistic black man, who wanted to rape the white plantation owners' women...another boogey man.
It seems like it's a psychological "thing".
I wouldn't automatically discount them, there are a lot of pervs around. My niece's husband had to go get a cop when they were on the beach and saw a guy secretly taking photos of young teens laying on their blankets. And he was there with is wife! Just acting like he was just walking around, but going behind girls lying on their stomachs and snapping photos without anyone noticing.
It can seem like it's everyone posting these tales, but if there are a few dozen people a day claiming this out of millions of people, it's really not a lot of people.
I think part is also just parents fears, which given some of the things that actually happen, like the 3 girls held in Ohio or the young girl found locked in a shed for 18 years, are somewhat understandable.
If you start reading too much about any scary subject on the 'net, it can very quickly start to feel more pervasive than it actually is, and that leads to scared people who don't trust each other.
If you have seen enough of these stories you either know it's fake or if you supsect it's fake (always check snopes by copy and pasting tagline into search) you press the report fake news to fb. Legit stories are usually detailed and on mainstream local news outlets.
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