Attempted Kidnapping Of 10 Year Old Girl Caught On Tape (Philadelphia)

[Fred Fuller]

Video at the link... have you talked to your children about resisting would-be a kidnapper? Not to make them paranoid, but to make them aware...

Additional video link - http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...l-Escapes-Attempted-Kidnapping-162950036.html

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...video-captures-man-trying-to-kidnap-girl?lite

Philadelphia surveillance video captures man trying to kidnap girl

Police in Philadelphia are searching for a predator after the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl in broad daylight was captured on surveillance camera. The girl is now home safe with her family. NBC's Natalie Morales reports.
By NBCPhiladelphia.com

Philadelphia police are offering $10,000 for any information on an attempted abductor caught on surveillance video trying to snatch a 10-year-old girl off a Philadelphia street in broad daylight.

"I want this creep off our streets, immediately," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said at a press conference on Wednesday.

In the video, which the police department released on its YouTube page, a man gets out of a white car and comes up behind a girl and her 2-year-old brother. The kids had been walking home on South Lee Street in South Philadelphia after getting water ice (a frozen dessert also called "Italian ice") a couple of blocks away when the man grabbed the little girl and tried to run off with her -- twice.

"It is gripping, to say the least. It is disturbing," Captain John Darby, with the Philadelphia Special Victims Unit, said.

The victim can be seen struggling with the attempted kidnapper and then falling to the ground. The man tries a second time to take her, but is stopped in his tracks by the little boy's screams.

"Ultimately, with the screams from this little boy and by her account, [the victim] says the child literally screams louder than anything she's ever heard before. He literally interrupts this assault," Darby said.

The attacker ran, got into his car and fled east on Porter Street.

The girl's father told NBCPhiladelphia.com he is proud of how his daughter fought off the attacker. The father said his daughter bit the man and struggled to free herself, techniques he claims she picked up while watching NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

The girl's neighbors went door to door, collecting donations to buy a Toys "R" Us gift card for the girl.

"I think it's sickening what happened to her," said Jennifer Carulli. "Seeing the surveillance video, it's heartbreaking. I think it's so scary that he followed her all the way here and actually got out of the car to grab her. It amazes me that this happened, it amazes me."

"What is he capable of doing any other time?" asked Harry McDowell. "What's he capable of doing right now?"

The suspect is described as a thinly built Hispanic male between the ages of 30 and 40 standing between 5'9" and 6' with a thin mustache, short black curly hair and medium complexion. He was last seen wearing a black short sleeve t-shirt and blue pants.

The man’s vehicle is described as a late 1990s-early 2000s white mid-sized foreign 4-door, possibly a Mitsubishi or Nissan with a black scuff mark on the driver’s side rear bumper and a dent on the left front fender wheel well.

Police warn anyone who sees the suspect to not approach him, but to call 911 or local authorities at 215-686-8477.
==========================

Apparently a "person of interest" is being interviewed in the case...

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...-Kidnapping-Person-of-Interest-163031026.html

Person of Interest in Custody in Caught on Cam Attempted Kidnapping
Police confirm they are talking to a person of interest in the attempted abduction of a girl from a South Philly sidewalk

Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit investigators tell NBC10 they were talking to a person of interest Thursday morning in the caught on camera attempted sidewalk abduction of a 10-year-old girl.

Police believe the man being questioned is the one seen on video trying to kidnap the girl off the the 2400 block of Lee Street in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon.

Police say the man's family pressured him to turn himself in. Police interviewed and released him Wednesday night, the girl identified him and cops picked him up again Thursday morning.

Police sources say they also have the car the man allegedly used to drive away.

 

[Skribs]

I'm glad she got away, but what do we really learn from this story?

 

[Fred Fuller]

What do we learn?

Even close to home in broad daylight, kids might not be safe.

Screaming helps.

Fighting back helps.

Being a 'starfish' if someone tries to stuff you into an open car door can help.

Running helps.

Kids need to know how to be aware and how to fight back. For example, see the film clip at http://www.kidsfightingchance.com/.

 

[Plan2Live]

I agree with Fred and would add running the opposite direction that the car is facing if possible.

Unfortunately I have had this conversation with my two sons over the years and even though they are now 14 an 17 I still worry about them when they are out alone. I honestly believe my efforts at raising their situational awareness got my oldest son out of a potential situation earlier this year, but that is fodder for it's own thread. If my sons were younger I would seriously investigate the covert GPS options like the GPS sneakers, etc.

This is just one of the many freedoms that we have lost over the past 30 or 40 years. When I was as young as 6 I used to take off on my bike for hours and my mom thought nothing of it. No more, not today.

Double unfortunate is even when I try to have similar discussions with adult co-workers they pull back like I am a one-eyed alien from Uranus or something. Lots of heads in the sand, or in their so called smart phones.

 

[TrickyDick]

I'm only 24, but i remember being gone all day since i was 6 or 7.... I know im going to teach my daughter alot of things relating to her own safety. I'm glad to see the girl did well

 

[Zoogster]

Teaching them to fight and be difficult is important, because the longer it takes for the kidnapper to succeed the more likely they are to flee, or be seen by witnesses during a struggle.


I do believe strangers performing kidnappings is fairly rare. Most official kidnappings of children in the nation are actually done by parents. These are done by either parents that lost their parental rights through the court and are kidnapping their kid from government, relative, or foster care. Or one parent kidnapping from another parent that has custody.
These meet the legal definition of kidnapping, but are not what most people think about when they hear the term.
So the official number of kidnappings is misleading.
Likewise most sexual abuse of children is statistically done by friends the family knows, relatives, etc Not some random stranger, even though the random stranger is who comes to mind as the child molestor to be on the look out for, because that is culturally what is taught.




It would be interesting what percentage of those kidnapped by strangers don't survive.
It will often be of a sexual predatory motivation as that seems the be the predominant motivator of such things. Though there is women that steal babies who couldn't have their own, or who had lied about a pregnancy and needed to then prove they had been pregnant when the due date should have arrived.
But generally it is male sexual predators.
If they categorize kidnappings by relation to the perpatrator to remove the vast majority of parents kidnapping their own children it would be easier to get reliable statitics.

I imagine many victims allowed to be taken to other locations don't survive. Additionally such sexual predators may be even more violent today in light of the punishment of sexual crimes. Many states now give life sentences just for the violent sexual attack. So people already facing life sentences may be less likely to let the victim go as a witness and source of evidence, rather than killing them, compared to prior decades. While in prior decades they often got short sentences for sex crimes, and so had greater incentive to try and get away with the sex crime alone and let the victim go after they were done, rather than elevate it to the much more signficant crime of murder.

Assuming they are likely to not survive, then being taught to fight even if they got a gun in their face, and weigh a fraction of their grown male attacker, is of utmost importance. A risk of death during struggle is certainly better than a certain death maybe combined with torture someplace else. Statistics on how many such kidnapping victims of strangers survive once kidnapped would be valuable in validating this.
Additionally a struggle even if unsuccessful creates more witnesses, and investigative leads.



Plant2Live said:

This is just one of the many freedoms that we have lost over the past 30 or 40 years. When I was as young as 6 I used to take off on my bike for hours and my mom thought nothing of it. No more, not today.

I don't know about that. I think the media just focuses on such things more. Most people were just unaware of such things until they started putting all those missing children on milk cartons in the 1980s.
With enough missing children that everyone could have a different missing child on every carton of milk they used, it had an impact in making people aware that children are kidnapped.
It would slowly bring attention to the issue, and as sexual predators started to be seen as more sinister characters, they became better stories in the media which likes stories that bring in the most viewers. Few stories will attract more viewers than a monster out there preying on what a parent cares about the most. So now the media which has to pick and choose which stories it covers in limited time slots, as there is always far more than can be covered, is sure to cover any sexual predator story it can.
The media covers those things which invoke the strongest emotional response, and increase ratings.
Even if it has to tell you about a case on the other side of the nation, and skip the local crime down the street. The gang killing in your city might not make the local news, while the network will tell you about the little girl someone attempted to kidnap in Phili. I saw that story on the news in California, but you can be sure there was plenty of violent crimes locally, in the county, and in the state, nevermind around the country, not covered. But an innocent child on video someone is trying to kidnap invokes a stronger emotional reaction, even if it didn't result in harm. So that fills that time slot.
One of the easiest emotional triggers that can be tripped is of parents fearing for their children, and a strong emotional response is best for ratings. So most stories that will cause parents to fear for the safety of thier children will see coverage, even if other crime has to recieve little or no coverage.

This gives a perspective that it is happening more than it is, and is a more likely risk to children than it is. Which is not to say a parent shouldn't protect their children, only that the same risk existed back when such things were not covered. In fact just talking about sexual crimes in the media in those decades prior could have been seen as indecent and as a result would not be sought out for coverage. While today there is no such barrier and such things are the most sought stories.

 

[CTGunner]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfBgOtnPwIk

This is a link to a strikingly similar incident, with video, that happened in a suburb of Hartford Connecticut last week. The girl in this incident was also 10 years old. She escaped, running in the opposite direction of the car. The odds of something like this happening, I'm told, are statistically low, but that quickly becomes irrelevant if it's your child and it happens.

As a side note I decided after seeing this to add video surveillance to my home security plan.

 

[SSN Vet]

watch your kids....

letting a 10 year old girl walk alone on a city street in this day and age is not what I would call prudent.

 

[Mainsail]

One of the news organizations did an investigation on bystanders and their reaction to a kidnapping. They staged a kidnapping and had the child screaming, "Your not my daddy!" It was sad seeing people, even in groups large enough to stop him, that just looked the other way.

The only guys they were able to film who actually helped the little girl were two hoodlum looking black guys, who surrounded the guy and wouldn't let him walk away with the child. (Don't judge a book by its cover...)

I think they did it in NY or somewhere they would not get interference from a concealed or open carry citizen. Doing that stunt would be dangerous in some cities.

Anyway, teach your children, but expect that people will not get involved.

 

[SwissArmyDad]

I have young kids, and from age 2 or 3, they all learned to expect wrestling with dad when I get home.

While I simply love the time to play and laugh with them, I've also deliberately tried to take away any fear of being tossed around a bit. They do not get hit or hurt or anything, but I DO NOT hold back when pillow fighting or tickling.

As a result of not wanting to be tickled till they vomit, or put on their little tushies by dad's pillow tosses, their reflexes are MUCH quicker. I actually have to aim to get any pillow hits on them now. Also, they've learned that their legs are much stronger than their arms, and as such are MUCH better ground fighters than they used to be.

Also, via a string of involuntary cheapshots (accidents on their part..haha), they've learned what stops me in my tracks: face, groin, thumb being pulled back, etc...haha.

My wife and I, to reinforce all this, have had conversations about not letting themselves be taken from where they are, telling them honestly that if they did, we'd likely never find them. They're to bite, scratch, scream, yell, and fight their way through any attempt to take them...even by people who tell them "daddy told me it's ok, etc".


It's a scary topic, but as a parent I definitely feel like you can do a ton to prepare a kid to react appropriately. Positive, fun lessons in how to fight back are 1000% more effective, btw. Just like a soldier, they'll fall back on their training when being faced with a fight or flight situation.