My husband and I were at the supermarket and our baby was being especially fussy, so he took her for a quick drive, the motion of which usually calms her down.
It only took about ten minutes to settle her and I was still in the store (but was unsure how much longer I’d be and there’s poor cell reception inside) so he pulled back into the parking lot to wait for me. It was an unseasonably nice day, so he took her in her car seat to sit on one of the benches outside the store.
He took a business call and had just sat them down, absentmindedly rocking the carrier, when a woman (well dressed, mid thirties, average height, fit build) approached them.
It’s not uncommon for people to ask to play with our baby, she’s got big rosy cheeks, soft whisps of gold hair, and the most adorable gurgely toothless grin, especially when she’s deep into a good nap.
But her nap schedule is paramount, so my husband was preparing to tell the woman she actually couldn’t play with our baby right then.
She walked over right in their direction, brimming with nonchalant confidence, and before he can even finish his sentence explaining she was napping and not to be touched, she picked up the carrier and started walking off.
He was in shock for a minute, not fully believing someone would be ballsy enough to do something so sinister in plain daylight, so he said “excuse me, put her down” as his panic mounted.
She remained calm this entire time, but when he called after her she started walking away more briskly than when she’d approached. He ran full speed ahead tried to grapple the carrier out of her hands, finally resulting to restraining her arms.
This woman yells “HELP, HE’S TRYING TO TAKE MY BABY, KIDNAPPING, 911, HELP” kicking him in the shin and pulling a pink bottle of pepper spray out of her handbag.
Of course, no one in the parking lot was clocking the earlier interaction, and assumed he really was a kidnapper (a lone man in a Deadpool T-shirt versus a tiny well dressed woman.) Immediately a man knocked my husband to the ground and was holding him down.
He could hear bystanders encouraging the woman to file a police report but she was doing a very convincing job of acting shaken up and insisted she just wanted to get home. To make matters worse for my husband, she was driving a minivan.
He was in a raw state of panic, realizing the entire parking lot had banded together to inadvertently facilitate the kidnapping of our daughter. He was begging and pleading with them, but no one was listening. They just kept screaming at him that the jig was up and he needed to lie still and wait for police and stop terrorizing a young mother.
My husband finally had the novel idea to show them family pictures on his phone. But, too panicked to think clearly, this manifested as him shouting “I have pictures of the baby on my phone!”
Which, of course, everyone interpreted as him having either stalking photos, or worse, pornographic images of the baby.
It was at this point that a man, I can’t entirely blame the man considering what he thought was going on, kicked my husband as hard as he could in the ribs.
It was at this point I was coming out of the store and I thought he was being robbed by these people. I was yelling for security, so panicked my chest constricted and I could barely get any sound out. It was only then I realized he did not have our baby with him.
When I saw she was being held by a woman, I was relieved, I thought maybe the woman had intervened to move my daughter out of harms way while my husband was being robbed and was walking away to get help.
I couldn’t find a security guard outside the store so I ran up to the people holding my husband down, waving my wallet, pleading “Take everything you want, just let up and leave us alone.”
And one of the men holding him down said something like “Lady we need to wait for police to deal with him.” And I was so confused, why would the muggers have called the police? I just kept stammering “What do you mean, what are you talking about” and made out someone saying “He tried to abduct that woman’s kid” I did not understand and was sure I’d misheard him. My husband would never hurt a child. And we have four kids, if he were going to commit a crime, bringing home another kid would be at the bottom of his list. I kept trying to understand what the man was saying and suddenly, it all clicked.
I looked around for the woman who had the baby carrier and she was halfway across the parking lot. I went into total ballistic tiger-cub mode, literally leapt out of my heels, and sprinted across the parking lot. I’m not a UFC fighter, I’ve never even taken a self defense class, so all I could think to do was grab the woman by her hair and squeeze her throat with my other hand (which didn’t do much, she was getting away even as I grappled with her). Amazingly, none of the other bystanders had yet to connect that my husband was telling the truth and this woman was absconding with my baby.
I yanked on her hair as hard as I could and that was enough to make her drop the carrier. I was so scared and surprised that I actually just threw myself on top of the carrier, covering the entire thing like a blanket, and stayed that way without saying or doing anything else. The woman left. Not one person tried to stop her. Even though she was clearly leaving without the child she claimed was hers, which would be pretty damn incriminating if I’d watched this scene unfold.
Within the next couple minutes, police had arrived. After all that, there were still several bystanders who explained it as my husband trying to kidnap the baby.
The police, to my horror, assumed that she must not have had bad intentions. The first questions they asked me after getting her description weren’t investigative, they were questions thinly veiled trying to convince me not to pursue charges. Still placing blame on my husband.
A small sampling “Do your husband and the baby look dissimilar? Is there a chance she thought he was abducting the baby and she was trying to intervene?”
“Could your husband have been doing something inappropriate or violent to the baby that would make her feel compelled to extricate the baby from the situation?”
“Did she seem groggy or confused, could she have mistaken either of them for her own family members?”
They spent more time verifying that the baby was actually mine than they concerned themselves with the fact that the baby was not actually hers.
My husband had called his brother at that point who works in an office with a lot of lawyers and connected with one ASAP who gave us the priceless advice to get every officer’s name and badge number, to request copies of the store’s security tapes right away, and to escalate our complaint higher up the chain if these officers weren’t taking us seriously.
Finally, we had reason enough to believe we were being taken seriously, and we went home, and both just shook and cried until we had to get our other kids from school. My husband is seething with rage and grappling with a feeling of helplessness from how little he was able to do, and has two cracked ribs from when the man kicked him. (To the officers’ credit, they did ask if he’d like to press charges, but considering the man was genuinely convinced at the time that he was on the right side of intervening in a kidnapping and stayed to talk to police and apologized profusely when the truth became clear, he declined to press charges.) Amazingly, and frustratingly, there were still people who stuck around to talk to police who were giving my husband dirty looks and one man who even implored the police to involve CPS to verify it was really our baby.
Parking lot kidnapper (and parking lot skeptics), you better hope we don’t meet.
Edit: thank you very much for the premium and happy new year!
Edit: Thank you so much for the good and happy new year!!
Edit: After hearing from everyone and weighing the pros and cons we got in touch with the police and decided to move ahead with pressing charges against the two men involved in anything beyond basic restraint to set an example that these men made the wrong decisions, even if they did come from a well intentioned place. Thanks for weighing in. I am trying to reply to as many comments as possible, but if I don’t get to yours specifically, thank you sincerely!!
[–]DangZagnut25 points26 points27 points (4 children) | Copy Link
This is gynocentrism. And you doubt our critics will say we're filled with 'hate' and are 'bitter' for pointing this out.
And for anyone who thinks this isn't real, this is exactly what happens.
It only takes one white knight and the rest froth at the mouth. White knights live for moments like this to desperately worship pussy at every moment. White knights never get it right, but like when A lying girl says she's raped, white knights know they can act exactly like this, and they'll be forgiven.
Until enough white knights are chopped off at the knees, will maybe some of them learn.
Next time you're in a public restroom and some guy is leaning against a stall asking "you ok buddy?" and you hear some young child's voice say "dad leave me alone!" remember, he's not doing it for the kid, he's doing it for you, because you're a probable white knight who will interject yourself, even without any women around to impress.
You're being told that yes, that's his kid, and you should fuck off.
[–]Careful_Description5 points6 points7 points (2 children) | Copy Link
I used to work washrooms at a busy place. Can't say much about Moms, except they would enter with their kids no problem (aside from the call to nature). Often times Dads would overdo interactions with their kids, and anxiously wait for them to finish. Especially if the washroom starting getting quite as others leave before them, if it's a girl, if their young, disabled, etc.
I didn't think much of it at the time. It was long before I learned about Real Sexism. But the last part of your comment put a new perspective on my experience.
[–]DWShimoda2 points3 points4 points (1 child) | Copy Link
Case in point one of the last paragraphs in that story:
That idiot was STILL falling for the sociopathic woman's BULLSHIT -- doing all kinds of contorted mental gymnastics to try to STILL justify his own intervention, and principally to NOT accept how easily HE was "tricked" -- not only do "white knights" NEVER get it "right" they also generally never LEARN a damned thing, because they never admit that they ever got it "wrong" (see they hang on the idea that their INTENT was "good/noble" etc).
IDIOTS.
[–]Yashugan001 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
They deserve the full charges that are coming their way. Perhaps that will teach them that good intentions doesn't make them right, or give them the right to assault people.
Let them consider that for a while and maybe they will start seeing things differently. Like the fact that a women tried to steal a baby will fade the halo effect away.
[–]Shimakaze413 points14 points15 points (2 children) | Copy Link
Fuck it I'd have pressed charges on the white knight. Even if you did suspect that someone was kidnapping a child, you are not judge, jury and executioner and booting someone in the guts when they are down is nothing more than a cowards move. The guy was probably boning up at the chance to be violent for m'lady.
[–]DWShimoda1 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
BINGO.
[–]Yashugan000 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
The kick to the ribs was excessive. Hope he gets assault charges.
[–]Bartand12 points13 points14 points (0 children) | Copy Link
Men are guilty until proven innocent. That's what feminists worked hard to produce in the society and justice $ystem.
[–]shatterthecrystal6310 points11 points12 points (0 children) | Copy Link
I'd have slapped that woman so hard she did a 1080 before passing out. The white knight? Rip his own arm off and beat him with it.
Unfuckingbelievable this story.
[–]Chaos19906 points7 points8 points (10 children) | Copy Link
If there is a dispute like this, you restrain both sides until police arrives. This isnt rocket science, people.
Makes you wonder how many kidnappers (almost) got away thanks to these "good samaritans".
[–]Ow3nd3 points4 points5 points (1 child) | Copy Link
When I was about 7 or 8 I was almost kidnapped by a sweet old lady.
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
Bro you can't just leave it there... moar.
[–]DWShimoda1 point2 points3 points (7 children) | Copy Link
LOL... that's nothing, get a load of THIS:
https://www.rt.com/news/463028-italy-children-abuse-mayor/
[–]Chaos19902 points3 points4 points (4 children) | Copy Link
Jesus, the fact people like that exist gimes me the creeps... Something that widespread and none of them blew the whistle...
[–]DWShimoda1 point2 points3 points (3 children) | Copy Link
Oh stuff that is -- depending on your perspective -- either almost as bad as that, or even worse than that... goes on within almost ALL (so called) "child protective services" and "foster care" systems.
(EDIT: BTW plenty of "horror" stories from former foster kids, here's one of them I just found -- with MINIMAL searching mind you {that post was like #5 on the front page over on /r/fosterit subreddit} -- here is a thread with several other foster kid stories {some good, some VERY bad}.)
And pretty much EVERYONE that is a part of that "system" not only KNOWS about a lot of the abuse that goes on... but help "cover it up" -- in one manner or another -- if nothing else, they follow a sort of Sgt Schultz "I see nothing..." act (aka the three 'wise' [sic] monkeys).
Perfect example of that is sexual abuse of kids -- all of the hullabaloo raised about "Catholic Priests" or the stuff about "Scout leaders" -- yet you hear virtually NOTHING about how common/pervasive it is with SCHOOL TEACHERS (and virtually everyone is in nearly complete denial about it*).
Yet stop and think: how COMMON are "Catholic Priests" (or indeed any/all preachers/priests regardless of the denomination/religion) and how many children do they have contact with, how often, for how long, how much (or little) "authority" do they REALLY have over kids, etc...
Now, conversely, how many (total) school teachers & school/extracurricular sports "coaches" are there? How much contact with, how often, for how long, and how much authority do THEY have over kids...
I guarantee you the sexual (and other) "abuse" of children in SCHOOLS -- even if it occurs at a FRACTION of the rate of that of Catholic Priests/Scout Leaders/etc -- is one or more orders of magnitude HIGHER; and it is virtually guaranteed to be higher just because of sheer numbers of people/kids & time involved (not to mention that the schools are an arm of the "state" that attendance is COMPULSORY, etc, etc).
* In fact, I will probably get one or more "how DARE you insinuate that SCHOOL TEACHERS might..." responses here.
And doubtless many will even claim that -- because MOST school teachers are WOMEN -- that such is simply NOT possible (yet another level/type of "denial"; our society quite literally grants woman an almost complete "pass" on any/all "molesting" of children {it is nearly ALWAYS excused as being "nurturing/cleaning" etc}).
I mean seriously, there are only TWO types of "teachers" that you EVER read about being indicted/tried for sexually abusing kids: (1) MEN, and (2) "Hawt" young female teachers who "have affairs" with teenage boys. You virtually NEVER hear (never mentioned in the news; in part because they are never 'charged' nor likely even ever 'accused') about women teachers "diddling" with little boys and/or little girls... but (unless you have your head up your arse) you KNOW that it has to be happening to SOME degree. Women are NOT "saints."
[–]Chaos19900 points1 point2 points (2 children) | Copy Link
that -- because MOST school teachers are WOMEN -- that such is simply NOT possible
Yeah, BS. A quick google search puts women who sexually abuse children around 4% of the total. That number is clearly way too low.
50% would not surprise me, as there is no inherent bias for any gender when it comes to pedophilia.
And yeah, the system is pretty much screwed up beyond repair at this point.
[–]DWShimoda1 point2 points3 points (1 child) | Copy Link
And think about that for a few minutes -- let's say (for the sake of argument) that THERE IS a slight, even "significant" "male heavy" bias in the gender split of pedophilia -- say instead of 50/50 it's a 60/40 split. Even THAT would still then mean that the 4% is not even 1/10th the number of actual cases.
Now I don't honestly believe that is the case, in fact I think -- if anything -- the split is in the OPPOSITE direction; and that there are in fact vastly MORE women molesting & abusing kids than there are men doing so.
Again, much as with school teachers, it is what one OUGHT to expect simply based on the sheer numbers of women, their (generally UNsupervised, UNquestioned) contact with kids, etc.
The whole "women are wonderful (even 'sinless' & 'saintly' creatures)" notion -- a strictly modern fantasy-construct mind you (and a baseless "assertion/belief" I might add, one that not only is there virtually ZERO evidence to support; but also a plethora of evidence to REFUTE)... has blinded/blindered people from seeing what is ACTUALLY happening all over the place (and which humanity historically KNEW about).
[–]Chaos19901 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
Yep, which is why there are virtually no battered men shelters, no DV help for men, men are arrested automatically even if he calls the cops on her, boys are treated like shit in the school system, women who sleep with teenage boys are "having an affair" rather than raping them, and the list goes on...
[–]teelolws0 points1 point2 points (1 child) | Copy Link
Lol wtf, they actually called it the "Hansel and Gretel Association".
Thats like when I joke about naming my business Ponzi Investments Ltd, except they actually did this.
[–]DWShimoda0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
There are actually quite a few companies in the financial industry named things like "Pyramid Investments" or "Pyramid Finance" etc... which is pretty much the same as calling them "Ponzi"; arguably even worse, because Charles Ponzi DID (at least initially) have a workable arbitrage scheme.
[–]Gadget46 points7 points8 points (0 children) | Copy Link
Yeah cos a woman can't be wrong /s
[–]Flesh_Pillow54 points5 points6 points (0 children) | Copy Link
What would happen say if he had lehally concealed firearm? I hate that rib kicking white knight.
[–]teelolws2 points3 points4 points (0 children) | Copy Link
I wonder if the story is made up. Throwaway account. If it was read we'd have had updates after 5 months, surely?
[–]CiceroVoltaire2 points3 points4 points (1 child) | Copy Link
If this is real, dad should have shot kidnapper.
[–]RIPOldAccountF4 points5 points6 points (0 children) | Copy Link
I would have stabbed the dude who kicked me. No reason not to think he wasn't compliant in the kidnapping if he wouldnt stop the woman and wait for police to clear things out between the two parties
[–]j-mgtow1 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
All that soy in homeboy's diet prevented him from knocking that thot out when she grabbed his child. "Maybe I can de-escalate this like Slate taught me to." Or maybe you could cold clock the bitch and call for police.
The mother's response was more believable.
"Strong times create weak men": we're shells of what we could be.
[–]Ignat_Voronkov1 point2 points3 points (0 children) | Copy Link
what would have happened if he was a cwp holder and opened fire and you had a few dead white knights and a thot?
[–]JBVO280 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
Wow this really brought my piss to a fucking boil..I'm going to get downvoted like crazy in that sub
[–]Yashugan000 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link
And the kidnapper women was found?
The fact she did this in broad daylight while her father was looking after her makes me suspect she's mentally ill.