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Preventing Child Abductions at Theme Parks


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I think we've scared the creator of this thread away already!

 

Anyways, I'm sorry to beat a dead horse, but the attitude of "I made a mistake and now it's someone elses responsibilty to rectify it because I can't take care of myself/ my family/ my hot coffee/ etc." is unfortunately a very typical American attitude. I talked about it with many people on the Mini Europe Trip; about how a lot of the fun things we have here in our parks would never fly in the USA because someone would hurt themselves being irresponsible and then take that exact attitude. And you can blame the American "media" for keeping everybody in a heightened state of panic. I swear, the last time I was home, the headline story of our local news in St. Paul was "Shopping carts. What the grocery stores don't want you to know could cost you your life. Get the shocking details tonight at 10." I mean, come ON!?!

 

VicP., welcome to TPR. Don't get scared away because people tell the truth here. I think, despite some harsh words, several people have made some good suggestions on how to better deal with, and perhaps avoid, this situation in the future.

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Just the other day I was taking my four-year-old cousin to a waterpark.

 

We had all kinds of fun. I even took him into the wave pool (he had no life jacket) and we had a blast there. Though he did lie and said he could swim but really couldn't. But I was by his side at all times and never let him leave my field of vision. But he knew to be careful as well.

 

But an action plan is too much. Even when I am taking responsibility for somebody else's child.

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^See, what's wrong with that? If you want to know where your kid is since you're too irresponsible watch them, just build a little cage.

 

Hey the police didn't file any charges in that case. Must be nothing wrong with caging.

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I've never heard of an actual case of a child being abducted from a theme park. It's a big urban legend, but I know for 100% fact that it's never happened at Disneyland (biggest subject of it all) and quite simply, if someone was trying to abduct a child an amusement park would be the absolute stupidest place to try.

 

It's strange SFDK requires a radio to do anything about it though.

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When we went to Disneyland when I was little (or anywhere for that matter) if I got lost I was to find a lady with kids and tell her I lost my mom, or something to that effect. Of course I never got lost - I was too damn scared to leave my mom's side, but it would have been a good plan had I become lost.

 

Moral of the story - keep an eye on your kids, and have a plan should they become lost.

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^^Actually there was an attempt at worlds of fun I believe last year. I found this from a cached page:

 

source: http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/amber_alerts/index.html

 

Clay County prosecutors have charged a 43-year-old man with attempting to abduct a six-year-old girl from Worlds of Fun.

 

Jonathan S. Stell of Seminary, Miss., is being held on $350,000 bond for the incident that occurred Tuesday evening. The girl told police she was waiting with a friend while her mother rode a roller-coaster. The girl said a man grabbed her hand and told her that he wanted to show her something, and he led her away.

 

The girl said the man picked her up and said he was taking her to his van to watch fireworks, but the girl became scared and managed to escape. Stell was later arrested.

 

Update:

 

Stell, an over-the-road trucker, was apparently just passing through the area, Star reporter Glenn Rice told me. Stell started following around a small group, including the mother and daughter. The group tried to shake him, Glenn told me. I'm seeking other details from the Clay County sheriff's office.

 

City Hall folks in Seminary, Miss. (pop. 335) don't know Jonathan Stell, although that family name is in the extended area.

 

There's a live link at http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/9479439/detail.html if you want to read it.

 

The only problem I would have is that they knew he was following them and they did nothing. (That's the not paying attention aspect) So it's happened once at a park, although he was a bit brazen for trying to carry someone out of the park in front of everyone.

 

Terry

 

EDIT: so basically the friend that the girl was with wasn't paying attention to have a man just walk up and grab her.

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It shouldn't be the parks responsiblity to look over your child. I mean...its your child! When I have children in the future and we have our yearly Coast-a-thon, I know for a fact that I will keep a firm grip on my kids hands because I always think about the worse thing happening. It seems to me that you didn't plan this very good. What you should do is get your kid some kind of bracelet, necklase or anything else of that matter and write your cell phone number on it so that if they're lost, they can go up to someone and that person could call you.

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While a parent does need to take care of their children, somethings are difficult to prevent.

 

If some sicko wants to try and kidnap a small child, all it would take is a 5 second glance away from your kid, and BAM! What's done, is done.

 

What I would like to see is a program like Chuck-E-Cheese has where the entire family gets a black light hand stamp and the children cannot leave w/o a parent/ gaurdian with the same stamp. Simple and effective. Perhaps not 100% effective, but it is better than nothing.

 

And the "child leash" sould be outlawed. IMO it is rather degrading.

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I saw a FAMILY-leash the other day. I kid you not, the 5 people were leashed together with little caribbeaners holding 3 kids to one adult, and then the other parent attached also to the other side of one kid. It was really hard not to laugh.

 

Also, the turnstile was pretty funny to watch when they got there.

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I can't say that I haven't used a harness for my kid, because I have. The only reason I did, A- was because he would wonder off and with him having a disability and not understanding what to do in that kind of situation I only used it in places he did not know, nor I. Matt also likes to dart into unsafe places. Mine was only used as a safety precaution not to restrain.

 

B-Matt actually picked out his harness. It's a monkey backpack that he named George and he would NEVER go anywhere with out his pet monkey George. When Matt was old enough, he wore his backpack without the "tail" attached. Never once did I pull on it. It had a good 3 feet where he could wander in my eyesight, but knew he couldn't go farther.

 

I also used one while I was in the airport. I don't know about single parents, but I tell you what, when you have to carry a backpack, two suitcases and a car seat plus keep an eye on your kid, you just can't do it. Once I was able to get rid of the suitcases, I still had to carry a car seat, my back pack, his back pack (cause he was tired of carrying it at this point) and a drink. He needed it on and I sure as hell used it.

 

Like I said, mine wasn't used for convenience it was used for safety.

 

Thanks for making my point for me!

 

I know there are plenty of irresponsible parents out there, but please don't assume that someone whose child has darted off or is in a harness is a bad parent. All kids do irrational things, at some point, and they can do them very, very quickly.

 

We are very cautious with our children, but both of our kids have, on multiple occasions, managed to free themselves from the tightest death grips my husband and I can manage. A child in a full blown tantrum is capable of amazing feats.

 

And yes, even the best kids have tantrums now and then.

 

Special needs kids are even more prone to these episodes, and it doesn't reflect on the parenting at all.

 

While I don't necessarily agree with the OP's rant, I think a lot of the responses have been a bit overly judgmental.

 

This is a sticky subject for me, though, as the parent of an Asperger's syndrome child. I know there have been plenty of times where I've been judged in public because my kid was acting out. I don't tolerate and excuse bad behavior by him, but he does have a neurological condition and isn't always in control of what he does.

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While a parent does need to take care of their children, somethings are difficult to prevent.

 

If some sicko wants to try and kidnap a small child, all it would take is a 5 second glance away from your kid, and BAM! What's done, is done.

 

What I would like to see is a program like Chuck-E-Cheese has where the entire family gets a black light hand stamp and the children cannot leave w/o a parent/ gaurdian with the same stamp. Simple and effective. Perhaps not 100% effective, but it is better than nothing.

 

And the "child leash" sould be outlawed. IMO it is rather degrading.

That would be hard to do at a park where you have thousands of people entering and leaving.

 

My grandma used to have my on the child leash when we went to Kennywood(I GOT VIDOES OF IT!). It was always fun to get as far as I could and try to trip people with it.

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^ One stamp for re-entry on one hand.

 

One stamp for your family ID # on the other hand.

 

Two total stamps.

 

We are not splitting atoms here, it is a rather easy process, and the only people that need two stamps are those families with younger children.

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