Attempted abductions uotside schools - risk?

[Kenduskeag]

Another day, another attempted abduction outside a local school. This time, a man in a white van pulled up beside a 10 year old boy and tried to physically manhandle him into the vehicle. As the child kicked and shouted, a nearby gardener was alerted and the man was chased off. Police are, as ever, investigating.

But it seems there's one or two of these every week! Just scouring the local papers - Sep '15, a boy grabbed by the driver of a red Nissan, escaped. Dec '15, a boy grabbed by a man in a balaclava. A woman claiming to be a friend of a young boy's mother tried to coax him into a car: police are investigating. In Stockport in January, police had 6 reports in 10 days of men, and in one case a couple, trying to coax children into a car. 1st April, an attempt in Heywood, 12 year old girl. The Bolton schools shared a social media warning two or three weeks ago and a primary not far from here had a warning out also - two incidents, drivers with similar descriptions. That's just local. How many nationwide?

So what's going on? We very rarely (if ever, in the last few years?) see any news stories claiming a successful outside-school abduction. Does that mean they all (due to children fighting them off) fail? We don't see media reports of these drivers being caught, charged and trialled. There doesn't seem to be much media interest, beyond the usual warnings - no 'who are these people?' or 'Are these drivers all linked?' Could some be fraudulent - children late for school or home, quickly coming up with the old man-in-the-car chestnut, which explains the lack of media follow-up?

AIBU to think this needs some closer investigation? Is it on the increase or occurring at the same rate? I'm just not sure what to think. On the one hand I like to think of myself as sensible and able to sift through clickbait headlines and fearmongering in order to ascertain real risk, and the ol' 'man in the car who says he's a friend of your mum' routine seems like something long-forgotten from the 1980s. On the other, there does still seem to be a risk of people who don't seem to give a stuff how many people see them grabbing shouting children and who the papers would have us believe are rarely or never caught.

I am satisfied it is genuine because I know the school, am aware directly of action taken and there is a photo of the child in local paper.

It happened to my nephew, not outside his school but near to his home with a nearby primary school last year.

There was no physical attempt to get him into the car, it was a verbal attempt to persuade him & a friend to go with the man. The police took k it seriously but it never made the local news.

A couple of years ago we had a spate of reported abduction attempts. I was a bit after the school circulated 'warnings' about 6 months apart of what sounded very much like the same incident. I contacted local PCSO who looked into it.

Turned out there was one 'incident' which was someone in a car stopping to ask a teen girl for directions. Her parents saw and reported it to the police. Obviously I don't know the truth of the situation but what seemed to happen was this incident got re-hashed every now and then on facebook leading to a fresh wave of panic every time and giving the impression of a spate which it was just one incident.

Again. Not sure that the Ashton case is Facebook hysteria. But can see why people unconnected to the area would prefer to dismiss it as such.

Oh honestly who sits outside a school in a balaclava?!!! Might as well put a big flashing light and a sign up.

Thankfully our local police force are very pro-active about fb Chinese whispers. They are very quick to pop up on these sorts of discussions and put people straight. It's either paedo hysteria, gypsy hysteria or dog stealing hysteria. All of it is bollocks. The country is not over-run with Levi Bellfields wearing balaclavas sitting outside schools in white vans!

No white van in my nephews case incidentally. It was a silver car.

If your thought your child had nearly been the victim of a stranger abduction, why would you put their picture in the paper?

Well one round us that went rapidly round turned out to actually quite different.

Story. Man in white van leant out of the window and shouted at a boy, then stopped next to him and tried to entice him in van. Boy sensibly ran off, and van drove off at speed.

Reality. Boy was in tears on way home from school. His neighbour passing on his work van, pulled over and called to him asking if he was alright or did he want him to call his mum. Boy said no, he didn't and continued walking home. Van pulled in shortly later to the house they were working at and were still there when the police arrived.
I know the parents of the boy. They still don't know who reported it though.

Some near us in West Midlands too. Both attempted as well as some actual abductions. Very scary

But there were also some in 80s and 90s too.

"Both attempted as well as some actual abductions."

Could you link to the actual abductions, please?

There have been a number of attempts in Kent in last year - reported in paper, police warnings, schools made announcements... I think there was on in Tonbridge and Sevenoaks was latest reported in local news

Definitely not urban myths

One in Aldridge. Few others on Birmingham Mail

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-hunt-rapist-after-girl-11294717

As an example of how urban myths are created...

There's a long alleyway near us. A story was going the rounds that a child had been attacked by a man with a hammer. Big drama. On investigating, it was found that a disgruntled resident had thrown a jam sandwich at a child who he considered was making too much noise while running through the alley.

It's Chinese whispers. I suppose the jam sandwich, although weird, just wasn't exciting enough.

I always assumed the outside of school incidents were urban myths with a handful of non-resident parent attempted pick ups thrown in.

And things like idliketobeabutterfly's post, where she has linked to a awful case of a 16 year old being kidnapped at 10.30 at night. Anyone not clicking on the link would think it was talking about a child being abducted outside their school by men in a white van. Considering that's what the thread is about.........

I often wondered as a teacher whether we should have spent less time warning pupils about potential abductors - there seemed to be a 'red alert' every week - and more time reminding them to cross the road safely. I think I'm right in saying that car accidents are still the biggest cause of death for the u16s.

My friends dd was In the process of being abducted even another parent Intervened. He was caught and is currently in s secure mental health unit. This was in south Birmingham so it of course can and does happen.
However fb do perpetrate and circulate hysteria and myth.

Still better be vigilant than sorry

It only takes there to be one or two genuine cases for all the rest to be taken seriously though. I'd imagine that the number of genuine cases is tiny but that their reporting leads to a number of people ringing police etc whenever they happen to see a white van outside a school.

Also, kids can react to these kinds of things with a kind of mixture of fear and excitement. It's not malicious in any way, but tell a load of ten year olds that they need to be vigilant about men in white vans etc and I guarantee that many will run home to their parents saying how the man in the white van approached them today and how they ran off, when actually the man in the white van probably drove past them or pulled up at the same traffic lights. I know when I was a child we almost wanted to be the ones who saw these types, I think we thought we were the famous five. . With the inability to see the actual seriousness of a real abduction....

Last week I got a round robin text message from dd's school that had been sent to all parents warning of another incident and asking parents to be vigilant and talk to our children about Stranger Danger.

A few weeks before that there was a letter in dd's bag from the local police that they'd asked local schools to distribute, warning of "a number of incidents" in the area and warning us to be vigilant etc.

So it does happen and it's confirmed by our local police and school. Not detailed specifically as white van men though but involving school children being approached and at least one attempted abduction in the hours just after school.

I'm always surprised at the amount of posters on MN who seem desperate to convince us it's all made up hysteria and we are foolish to believe it. Clearly there are incidents and I am glad to be made aware. I will believe school and the police I think.

Am in West London by the way.

My DH was abducted into a white van at primary school age (early 80s) and managed to jump out and run home.

His mum still doesn't believe that it happened and refused to report it at the time.

There was a 14 yr old girl kidnapped very close to us on her way to school by two other girls, it was a horrendous case and made the national newspapers.No white van, they just frogmarched her back to one of their flats, close by. There was no warning put out about, i didnt see anything on facebook and only found out when the courtcase was in the paper.
However back in the 60s/ 70s when i was in primary we were sometimes warned that about a man stopping and trying to talk children into his car so to go home in pairs as in those days we walked to school by ourselves.

The thing is that the police have to issue the warning if an incident is reported to them. It actually doesn't add any credibility to the report, but people think it does.

Why do people think none of these attempts are ever successful?

So a warning from the police means nothing? According to randoms on MN.

Ok then