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Original poster

PLEASE be careful

90 replies

nailpolish · 15/12/2004 10:40

i recently heard this story and it really made me think twice.

dont know if its true, never saw it in the papers or anything.

a mother in lanarkshire lives with her dad and her toddler. the mum went shopping and so her dad was looking after the 2 year old. the dad said to toddler 'grandads going upstairs for a shower i wont be long' and he did. when he came down there was no sign of the toddler, he looked out the window and a man was running down the street with toddler under his arm. he managed to stop them and called the police.

turned out the man who had snatched the child was a convicted paedophile who had chanced by the house and seen the toddler in the house on her own and just walked in and picked her up.

i now lock my door at all times and its really frightened me. its sad though cos i used to leave the door unlocked so friends and family could just come in and out.

OP posts:
Titania · 15/12/2004 10:42

how frightening.......

spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 10:43

Of course I agree we should always be careful, but this story does sound like an urban myth to me

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 10:44

thats what i thought sm, but i just thought it was so easily true that it worries me

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 10:45

I don't know how easily this could happen really. What are the chances of a random paedophile happening to pass by an unlocked house where there just happens to be an unattended toddler?

spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 10:47

sorry np, it sounds like I'm bickering with you and I don't mean to! Just that we all have to contend with enough fear as it is, and something like this is really an extremely unlikely occurrence I think

coppertop · 15/12/2004 10:49

The chances of an unattended 2yr-old getting themselves into trouble would also be far greater than the likelihood of a pervert getting into the house.

We keep our doors locked because walk-in burglaries are fairly common around here.

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 10:51

dh is always nagging me to keep the door locked cos thats what he is is used to, but i hate it. dont like f and f having to knock on the door!

so when we heard the story he said 'see told you so'

sm, it is extremely unlikely i know but i cant stop thinking about it

OP posts:
PrettyHannukahndles · 15/12/2004 10:52

It does sound urban-mythy, but you should still make sure your front door cannot be opened from the outside without a key. When I was very little someone did come in off the street and terrrorise my mother when she was alone with two pre-schoolers in the house. Since then, we have always had the sort of locks on our doors that lock automatically when you shut the door, so that you can only open the door from the outside with a key, but don't need a key to open it from the inside (in case of fire etc).

mistletoe · 15/12/2004 10:52

I agree with you spacedonkey.

There are NOT NOT NOT paedophiles walking down every street at every time of the day. I would be much more worried about a 2 year old hurting herself in the house while her grandad was in the bath.

Anyway, our front door is always locked, to stop ds opening it and going out on his own.

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 10:58

Gosh Pretty how frightening

so what do others do with toddlers/babies when they want to go for a shower etc?

i just make sure they are near the bathroom and i know they can hear me/i can hear them

OP posts:
spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 10:58

It makes me sad that we live in a society so dominated by fear

PrettyHannukahndles · 15/12/2004 11:03

Nailpolish - I use the square babysitter, plus her boyfriend the video .

mistletoe · 15/12/2004 11:04

The nursery next to ds's school looked out onto a patch of woodland, so the kids inside could look out at the trees, birds, squirrels etc.

Over the last month, they haver build a high wooden fence around it (inside the existing chain link fence) to stop people looking in at the children !!!

So they have imprisoned the children, because of a miniscule risk of a passing paedophile LOOKING at them. We have got the priorities all wrong IMHO

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 11:06

LOL pretty!

so do i

OP posts:
mistletoe · 15/12/2004 11:08

Nailpolish,

When ds was little I used to shower either before dh went to work in the morning, or when ds went down for a nap, safely in his cot.

Now ds is 5, I sometimes (rarely) have a shower when he's about, but only when his favourite program is on so he's unlikely to get into mischief, and I always make sure he knows where I am in case he needs me.

spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 11:09

Agree with your post about the high fence mistletoe. How depressing.

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 11:11

wish i hadnt posted this, its making me frightened and sad, but at least you made me lol prettyh

OP posts:
bakedpotatohoho · 15/12/2004 11:14

i don't think you should feel depressed by the way this thread has developed, NP... quite the opposite.

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 11:15

its not the thread bp, just society in general. cant stop thinking about the story because dd1 is the same age

OP posts:
bakedpotatohoho · 15/12/2004 11:16

what i mean is, i agree with SD and mistletoe that the general perception of danger is way out of proportion, and that cheers me up (even though the world IS going mad)

mistletoe · 15/12/2004 11:16

Nailpolish

We're trying to point out that you SHOULDN'T be that frightened. The risks are much less than you think.

Original poster
nailpolish · 15/12/2004 11:18

thanks girls xxx

OP posts:
mistletoe · 15/12/2004 11:22

After all, I got home from work yesterday to find the postman had left 2 big parcels in plain sight on my front doorstep. NO ONE HAD STOLEN THEM. The world is a less bad place than we believe.

(mind you, I'm bloody angry at royal mail for risking it)

spacedonkey · 15/12/2004 11:23

I live in central London and TWICE I have left my living room window open by mistake and gone out overnight. Both times I came home and nothing had been touched. There's a lot of hysteria about, things aren't really that bad.

lisalisa · 15/12/2004 11:23

Message withdrawn