It is a scary feeling, your heart stops and your worst fear paralyzes you from head to toes: your kid was just next to you and now is gone! You start screaming your kid's name first not to loud but then you realize that someone might have taken him (her) and you get totally insane!
In crowded places like a big store or an amusement park a lost kid becomes an easy pray for predators, who usually blend in the crowd waiting for an opportunity like this.
It takes a second for a kid to disappear! A quick thinking could save your kid of being abducted. Panic would only act on your disadvantage and waiting too long trying to find you child in the crowd will only delay help.
Scream loud the name of you child and tell the store employees to close the exit doors because your child has been taken. Describe your child to the nearest clerk to get on the microphone and advise the people in the store. Sometimes the age of the child or the eye color are better than describing the clothing (which might be changed by the abductor). Alert the employees to call the police and go straight to the restrooms including the Male's bathroom, open all the doors. Some abductors will try to disguise your child to get him or her out of the store.
Remember, the sooner you react the less time the abductor will have to run away with your child.
Here is some helpful advise for you:
- Keep your child next to you at all times even the older ones, who love to browse in the electronics department (a favorite place for predators too). Talk to your kids and be honest with them and what could happen to them if a predator takes him or her. If they want to play the demo video games, stay with them, make them choose between playing 10 minutes or nothing at all, remember you have the control not them!
- If you seat your infants on the shopping cart, DO NOT leave them unattended, not even for a minute! While you are busy looking for the right size of dress someone could just swing by behind you and take your cart... and your child too!
- The best thing to do is leaving your little ones at home with someone taking care of them, but if you are not that lucky then try to go with someone else to help you or do your shopping before you pick them up from the daycare.
- Shop for an alarm device, some of them have two halves, one of them stays with your child the other one with you and if the child gets separated about 5 feet the alarms gets activated. Invest in a cellular phone for the oldest ones. It wasn't too long ago a 15 year old girl saved her own life thanks to a cell phone when she did text her mother with her location.
- Elaborate a plan with your kids if they get lost: a password that means DANGER, a point of reunion like the Customer Service Desk if they get lost and to go to a register to have the clerk call the parents on the intercom.
- Tell your kids not to trust anyone, even if they seem nice and offer to help them and never leave the store without you.
- NEVER let them go to the restroom by themselves (and this goes also for parks, movie theaters or other public places). Wait for them outside if the are boys and a little older and take the little ones with you to the ladies restroom. Never leave them waiting for you outside the bathroom if they are boys. No one is going to get mad if you take them inside with you, not on these times!
- Finally, always carry a recent picture of your child with you. In the worst scenario you will have a photo to show the police if you cannot find your child in the store. Immediately report your child in A Child is Missing at 888-875-2246.