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View Full Version : OK so it was the best of time and it was the almost absolute worst of times......


RebeccaC
04-10-2008, 06:51 PM
I am talking about Sunday which was my b'day and probably one of the worst and one of the best I have ever had. So what was so very bad wellllllllllll.......
A close encounter for the crow boys which almost gave me a coronary. Sunday was a very nice sunny day here and I was making one of my favorite meals, after all it was my b'day and wild salmon fillets, with home made mashed tators, and frozen fancy green beans were in order :D However while mashing said tators the sky fell in or at least seemed to to me.

Crow boys went out for a bike ride with a neighbor boy. Our neighborhood for the most part is nice. We are right next to a forest preserve and a little league baseball field and park. Dsons were stopped by a man in a van..... yep hang in there it gets worse..... who told them he owned the concession stand at the ball park and that he had been having trouble with a stray cat and needed help dropping it off far from the ball field...... step up from I have some candy in the van story line :cursing:...... anyway dss know better they have been through the BSA Time to Tell film 3 or 4 times now but neighbor boy has not. So neighbor boy gets off his bike and jumps in van. My dss who are now walled in their rooms for life or so I wish.... huddle decide they have to do the BSA buddy thing so one stays with the bikes while the other, almost goes off to his doom in my way of seeing things, with the van guy........ Yes upon hearing this I nearly lost it all and am sure I gained at least a 1000 gray hairs. After dropping off the naughty kitty the van guy does drive the boys back to their bikes and says see ya later. Younger ds rides home to tell because he thinks now that it is all done is the time to tell :glare: I suppressed my desired to immediately wall my boys in by reminding my self through my hysterical tears and suppressed yells of how in tarnation could you do that, that their frontal lobes are not yet developed and they have no idea just how dangerous their helping the van guy out really was :eek: Dh went looking for van guy and called one of the scout leaders who heads up the s*xual abuse/predator department for our county and city. I lecture through tears for God only knows how long which dh also does. We have never ever been so scared in all of our lives until today when the van guy actually knocks on my front door and yes he is still alive but only because I did not find out who he was until he left:banghead:

Well to make this short we have several policemen in our BSA troop and they are now on the watch for the van guy who might not even work at the concession stand. The neighbor kid got a debrief from both dh and I. Our boys got the socks scared off of them when dh explained all the whys it dangerous going with the van guy in details they had not heard before but not too graphic just enough to scare the socks off of them.

So to the good part after my blood pressure left stroke realm we had dinner and dh and my boys bought me a German Chocolate cake and rented Enchanted from Blockbuster which was a big help. Then I decided it was time to escape a bit and got on the puter and headed for here and what did I find I had 4 new rep points and an e-mail from the board saying happy b'day :D Which helped. The best part was tho that my dss were with us to eat cake and laugh at Enchanted.

Cheryl in NM
04-10-2008, 07:06 PM
Oh My! That's is certainly scarey! I can't believe the guy came to your house! And how did he know where you lived!? I'm you got the police involved.

Hang in there!
:grouphug:

WTMindy
04-10-2008, 07:11 PM
Oh, I'm so glad they are OK!!!!! Why did the van guy come to your house?

RebeccaC
04-10-2008, 07:14 PM
Oh My! That's is certainly scarey! I can't believe the guy came to your house! And how did he know where you lived!? I'm you got the police involved.

Hang in there!
:grouphug:

I hope he does not know that my boys live here. He was dropping off fliers to do tree work. One of my boys said after he left mom thats the van guy. I called dh and he called the policemen that we knew. I have no idea where his van was and was not going to confront him by myself. At any rate he got an ear full from our two shepherds so I don't think he will be by our house again and we have his business phone number which has been passed to the authorities.

Momto4kids
04-10-2008, 07:14 PM
Oh my that is scary! I would have been the same way. I always wonder what my kids would do.
I have even gone so far as to think dh should have one of the guys who works for him (that the kiddos have never met) try this type of ploy with them for us to see what they would do.

Carol in Cal.
04-10-2008, 08:26 PM
Now we know what a great writer you are!

JFS in IL
04-10-2008, 09:53 PM
I assume the Crowlings are not flying far from the nest for the time being!!!! Now I want to reiterate that Scout training with my crew!!!!!

:eek:
PS - Happy belated Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom2legomaniacs
04-10-2008, 10:05 PM
really really scary. OMG I have chills and feel ill. Thank goodness the kids are okay. Wow, that is just, wow.

Happy Birthday.

LG Gone Wild
04-10-2008, 10:09 PM
I think I would just be slapping my boys silly. I know that is not the right reaction but gee whiz. :scared::thumbdown::ohmy:

What about the neighbor kid? Do you think he got the same earfull?

Cindyg
04-10-2008, 10:16 PM
I swear we had this same conversation on the old board. A 5 year old child was trudging through the snow to kindergarten, and a man picked her up in his car, drove her to school, and let her out at the school door. The mom was horrified, furious, and scared; she called the police, etc. They caught the "perp," but he would not apologize. So she wanted to press charges.

Some of us asked, "Charges for what?" He didn't harm the child. It could be argued that he helped her. The police were treating him like a sex offender.

I don't think we ever heard what became of the "case."

Rebecca, I'm sorry you were scared. I'm glad your boys are OK. Please consider that the guy is not necessarily a sex offender. I have no explanation why a "normal" guy would put children in his van. None whatsoever! And I'm not saying that was OK. But he didn't hurt your children. It sounds to me like you live in a safe place. I just hate for your kids to think they had a brush with death or rape, and for them to feel unsafe in the future. :(

I'm really glad they're OK.

WTMindy
04-10-2008, 10:32 PM
I swear we had this same conversation on the old board. A 5 year old child was trudging through the snow to kindergarten, and a man picked her up in his car, drove her to school, and let her out at the school door. The mom was horrified, furious, and scared; she called the police, etc. They caught the "perp," but he would not apologize. So she wanted to press charges.

Some of us asked, "Charges for what?" He didn't harm the child. It could be argued that he helped her. The police were treating him like a sex offender.

I don't think we ever heard what became of the "case."

Rebecca, I'm sorry you were scared. I'm glad your boys are OK. Please consider that the guy is not necessarily a sex offender. I have no explanation why a "normal" guy would put children in his van. None whatsoever! And I'm not saying that was OK. But he didn't hurt your children. It sounds to me like you live in a safe place. I just hate for your kids to think they had a brush with death or rape, and for them to feel unsafe in the future. :(

I'm really glad they're OK.

I do not think that those two stories are similar. I remember that big discussion and there is a huge difference between a picking up a small child walking alone in the cold and enticing two teens into a van with a fishy story. One was a nice man trying to do the right thing (although probably foolish in this day and age on the man's part and definitely foolish on the child's part) and the other was a very strange story indeed. I would be very upset with my kids for going anywhere near that van!!

Eliana
04-10-2008, 11:04 PM
Oh, my!!! Oh, Rebecca!!! I think it would take me years to come down off an adrenaline rush anything like that one! Isn't it amazing how smart kids make such bad choices?!!?? Thank G-d everyone is okay....

:grouphug:

RebeccaC
04-10-2008, 11:10 PM
Rebecca, I'm sorry you were scared. I'm glad your boys are OK. Please consider that the guy is not necessarily a sex offender. I have no explanation why a "normal" guy would put children in his van. None whatsoever! And I'm not saying that was OK. But he didn't hurt your children. It sounds to me like you live in a safe place. I just hate for your kids to think they had a brush with death or rape, and for them to feel unsafe in the future. :(

I'm really glad they're OK.

What we were told by the authorities was that this could be very innocent if the man was an older man. If not, which if my boys are remembering right he is not, then it could very well be some of the new perp pick up techniques. Kitten/cat in a box help me put it out.... The gentleman who, don't know just what his office is called, handles all the s*x crimes in our city and the local county is the one who told us that. Maybe JFS remember just what his title is :confused1: since her son was in our BSA troop and they know this gentleman. He also is the a leader in our sons BSA and reenactment troop. Anyway He is taking this pretty serious and said that the forest preserve a block from our house is a pick up spot for quickie h*mos*xal acts. There is nothing that this man can be charge with right now. What we were told is that he should not develop a further relationship with our sons because one way that these guys draw in young teens is with a few encounters then the teen lets down his guard and......... Our sons were also told this because they need that info. They needed to see the logic that if the guy already had the cat in a box in his van he did not need any kid in the van to help him out. They needed to see that it is never ever OK to get into a strange mans vehicle for any reason.

Anyway this whole thing is being used in an anonymous manner at the next showing of A Time to Tell which is BSA film on this subject. The leadership in the troop has moved up the showing of the film because of what has happened to our sons. We did not ask for this they just thought that it was a good idea.

We did talk with the other boy who is about 13 and a latch key kid. He spends a lot of time at our house. His parents tho do not speak English so we have no spoken with them. Hopefully all the boys now know that it is never ever OK to get in a van or vehicle with a stranger even if it is to make sure a friend is safe. That is what our oldest son was doing getting in to make sure his friend did not get hurt.

We live in a nicer part of town however there were two rental house on our street which gang member rented a few years back and I have stood in my living room and 3 different times watched drive by shootings or out and out gun fights, called 911 and never batted an eye. I have been help up at gun point working the night shift at a shell gas station and my feathers were not ruffled. However, I was scared nearly to death on Sunday. I was also so very very thankful that nothing happened to any of the kids.