A couple of weeks ago I had an experience with my youngest daughter that lasted all of ten seconds but still continues to make me physically ill when I truly think about it. I keep replaying the moments in my head, hoping that I misunderstood the situation, but something tells me that I’m not.
I believe I witnessed my precious baby nearly become abducted at the park not even five feet away from me.
Now before I provide you further details I would like you to know a bit about me. I’m what most people call laid back, I don’t worry over many things and I am drawn much more to the free range than attached parenting style. So for me to share this with you is not to scare anyone into thinking this is something you will likely ever experience in your lifetime, but for me, I realized that it isn’t a complete impossibility as I previously thought.
My two girls, ages five and 15 months, and I went to the park one Sunday morning. It was one of those rare cool Dallas mornings-in the mid 80s and while I expected the park to be extremely crowded, I was surprised to find it wasn’t. We enjoyed a delicious food truck lunch prior heading to the children’s area to splash in the water.
To help illustrate my story, I have a picture I took earlier from an angle opposite of where I was during the occurrence-the arrow on the left is where I was sitting and the arrow on the right is where my girls were playing. Two other people were standing in the space between us but I could clearly see both of my girls and was just beyond arms reach of them.
At one point, I found myself thinking how difficult it was to watch both girls at the same time and made a mental note not to return to this park without my husband. I have always spoken highly of intuition, and it didn’t fail me this time because I found myself purposely putting my phone on the bottom of my bag so I wouldn’t be tempted to look at it.
I can’t stress enough what happened next lasted less than ten seconds, but each one of them replay in my head as if they were five minutes each. I remember seeing a woman with dark hair and sunglasses so large they were covering her entire face look down at my daughter and pick her up, holding her close to her body. She quickly turned and started walking towards the exit but only had time to take five steps before I heard the word, “Ma’am!!!” escaping from my mouth loudly. She turned and looked down at me, seemingly surprised that I was her mother, placed her down in front of me and just stammered, “It is too hot for her to be standing there.”
I scooped my daughter up into my arms, holding her tight and started shaking. I looked over to where she had just been standing extremely confused because she was standing in a shaded area. Just as it hit me what I may have just prevented from happening, my older daughter ran over to me and wanted to know why that woman picked up her sister. I looked up to see who this woman was but she had completely disappeared.
I spoke with park personnel and advised them of what happened, they thanked me for providing the information and said that they did have specific protocol and procedures for these types of concerns. That did make me feel better, but quite honestly, in this circumstance if I hadn’t been paying direct attention to my daughter she would have been gone.
I can’t stress enough that I am not writing this to say this will happen to you, as it probably won’t. The likelihood of a random abduction is strikingly improbable, but it does happen. I feel compelled to share my story because while the “what if’s” continue to haunt me, I feel very fortunate that is the only thing that remains and would never want another mother to wonder what if she had just been paying attention.
Thank you for posting. I do not consider myself a helicopter mom bc of fear of my kids getting hurt but in public places (or simply my own yard) I DO hover over them for fear of abduction. My friends tell me I’m crazy and paranoid but I know it’s my job to protect them and I know it happens more than we think! Thanks for sharing and praise the Lord you were vigilant !
Thank you for sharing! My husband and I always take our three year old daughter to the track at a local Austin middle school so that she can run and she sometimes runs all the way to the opposite end from us which has always made me very uncomfortable because there are exits to parking lots on both ends of the track, and because it’s very close to a wooded area where deer and who knows what else often hang out. As you said it’s highly unlikely that she would be abducted but it’s a good reminder to be aware of what’s going on around us at all times to ensure the safety of our children and ourselves – including being aware of the weather! She and I had to endure three tornado warnings and take cover on Friday which was very stressful for me but luckily she was totally clueless LOL! Thanks again for the post and reminder!
How awful!! I’m prompted to respond because I had a similar encounter with a woman but at a spray park in Rokwall at the Harbor! Was she Hispanic?
My baby girl who was 13 or maybe 14 months at the time was fascinated by her necklace and the woman picked her up. I went over and talked to her and she wasn’t very warm or open to conversation even with my baby girl in her arms. She kept holding her for an uncomfortable 5 minutes and never put her down. I wouldn’t have even felt comfortable doing that! Finally my mother in law went over and we got her and when we did, the woman just left! She had a man with her and if I’m not mistaken they had an older child with them.. About 6 maybe. The whole encounter was just bizarre.
I’m so thankful you caught this incident!!! So so thankful!!