kidnap attempt in shop - is it true?

[jenhden]

in the past two months i have heard three almost identical stories of an attempted kidnap and am wondering if it is an urban myth or if there is a spate that i would have expected to hear on the news by now.

whati've heard is that whilst paying a cashier in a shop a mother turns to realise her young daughter who had been attached by a wrist strap rein has gone, with the strap cut.

The cashier presses a panic button which locks all the doors and the girl is found in the toilets with someone who has cut her hair off and dressed her in boys clothes in order to get her out of the shop unnoticed.

one was a mothercare in hull, one an asda in leeds and the other a supermarket in birmingham.

Has this happened?

ROFL at 'friend of my sister'

Was it on the news Five? It sounds like the sort of thing that would have been all over the papers?

I heard it was in Bluewater.

A firend of my sisters....

I have heard lots of other attempted kidnapping stories (of older cihldren)that don't make the press; maybe becuase they're less dramatic. Usually the police just notify local schools and put a not through peoples doors.

I've heard it too.

Sure it's not true, but Tee, in the disabled toilets it would be entirely possible. They often don't have radar keys (or they don't in the shopping centre and supermakets where I live).

Like I said, Five, show me the news report. It would have been all over every news station and in every newspaper.

Precisely, princesstoadstool.

Well, I heard all the doors at Bluewater were locked so no one could get in or out.

Sounds like a fire hazard to me.

I heard this from someone who said she was there, about 12 or 13 years ago. Sounded plausable then. I thought the change of image was to get past security cameras...and it was 2 teenage girls doing the kidnapping.

i heard the same as you lynettescavo, knew it was rubbish as i worked in bluewater at the time and they dont have electronic locking doors!
also i pressume the hair shaving is done with an electric trimmer rather than a bic - wouldnt that be a bit noisy?

Have googled, adn seems to have never been reported by any meida ever, though.

It's utterly true. It happened in all these places. Simultaneously. It's not in the papers or on the actual news because Suri Cruise had a dress on that day and they reported that instead.

FFS, do you think in this day and age if there was a threat to children as enormous as this you would have heard about it from a source other than a chain email/text?

its a load of crap - allegedly it happened in our asda 2 weeks ago too - i must have had 20 texts warning me about it but its defo crud

this is true though

Wasn't this an episode of Bones or NCIS or Law & Order? They were in one of those American Pizza places that also had a ball pit. Damn, that's going to bug me now.

In UK, in RL? Not so likely - never yet worked in a shop where you could lock the doors down with one button.

Ivykaty , yes true.

On a lighter note, if you swallow an apple pip, a tree will grow in your stomach. True.

Serenity it was CSI Miami.

I heard this one about two years ago. Exactly the same story and it 'happened' in John Lewis in Kingston.

Definitely not true.

I wish I could lock all the doors in Ikea. By remote locking when I'm far away. Then I would never, ever have to be told off by a member of staff again for not following the arrows.

CSI. Original flavour - as Catherine got all weepy because the little girl they rescued looked like her daughter is triumphant

Still think it's a myth though.

Oh crossposts - was it blondie from miami getting upset then? Ta Ghoulsaloud.

SoH - JUST FOLLOW THE DAMN ARROWS OK??!!

You were told off for not following the arrows? I never follow the arrows and nobody has ever said a word, in fact I struggle to recall ever actually seeing a member of staff in Ikea.

The real kidnappings that get reported on the news are nothing like this, usually the child is just led or carried away like Jamie Bulger. If a kidnapper is stopped early then they could claim they were looking for the mother to return a lost child, not something that they could claim if they had gone to the trouble of changing the child's clothes. The urban myth is overly complicated and has plenty of shock value but would be a rubbish way of actually kidnapping a child.

I heard this story while chatting to some locals on holiday in Spain they said it happened in the big supermarket there - then came home to find it had also happened in our local Asda!

Maybe it happened somewhere, but it's definately become an urban legend now.

Did anyone hear the one ages ago about the autistic boy who stole a penguin?? I completely beleived it, told my sister and she said 'Oh I've heard that one!' I was so adamant it was true because it happened to my workmates, neighbours best friend and....... I felt quite the fool.

Only thing I can add is that, maybe 10 years ago, I was in the Gyle shopping centre in Edinburgh.

I was walking out and I went past a little boy who was standing on a bench, clearly distressed. So I stopped. And so did another woman. And we said "are you lost?" and he was. I went back to find his dad, which I did quite some distance away ( about that - he was like, oh yeah I said to follow us) but the other woman said she'd lost her daughter in the shopping centre before and the security guards genuinely could shut it off to prevent anyone from leaving.

The only time I've lost ds was on a cross-channel ferry, so no need to shut it down, there's nowhere for him to go.

It was CSI Miami, I remember the annoying pathologist getting all upset because the child died and having a "talk" with her children at the end.

I lost my dd in a shop once and they shut it up, dont know if it was a central locking system or they locked the doors manually - but they definately knew how to respond - she was found and had not been taken!. Somebody local to me got taken out of her garden - it didnt hit the news as she got found and returned and the takers caught.