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Mom on trial for ''kidnapping'' a child she was trying to help.

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Ara Ann

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Wow, I have ''Court TV'' on and a woman/mother from Las Vegas is on trial for kidnapping, because she found a 5 year old boy wandering down a dangerous, secluded road, a few blocks from a school (where her kids go too) and she picked him up to PROTECT him...at first, she tried to find his house and planned to take him home, but he couldn''t give the directions, so after she realized he had wandered away from school (which he was in the habit of doing) she called the school to tell them she had him in her car and told them she wanted to take him to his home, they kept her on the phone for a while, transferred her around, then started telling her she was in big trouble for taking this child...she finally called the police and they ARRESTED her for kidnapping!!!

She had him for about 90 minutes total! I can''t FREAKING believe this! A MOM, trying to PROTECT a FIVE year old child, she didn''t harm or even scare him, IS NOW ON TRIAL! Now, I''ve seen it ALL. And if she''s convicted, she faces LIFE in prison!

What would you do? I mean, the obvious thing would be to call 911 first, but in her mind at that moment, she thought he must have lived nearby and would just take him home...it all got more complicated than she ever planned. But knowing this, would you stop to help a YOUNG child, you saw wandering alone, in a dangerous area?
 
Yes, of course I would help a child. Mother instincts first. No way I''d leave a child on the street wandering around. You can probably get arrested for that too?

However, I''d be a bit smarter about it. Get the kid off the road and call the police first. I would not be sticking the kid in my car and driving him around for any reason.
 
This is so unfortunate, but there''s a reason we have a court system and judges. I''m confident if the story is accurate a judge will rule in her favor. If I were in her position I would have helped the kid too.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 1:57:17 PM
Author: TravelingGal
Yes, of course I would help a child. Mother instincts first. No way I''d leave a child on the street wandering around. You can probably get arrested for that too?

However, I''d be a bit smarter about it. Get the kid off the road and call the police first. I would not be sticking the kid in my car and driving him around for any reason.
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Ditto! Police call should have been the first step. Still, the school freaked out, and hopefully the judge will recognize that the lady was just trying to help!!!
 
Of course you help the child...by calling the police. Not driving him around for an hour and a half. I feel bad that she was just trying to do the right thing.
 
I think it's kind of ridiculous, but imagine being the school worker who gets this call:

"Hi, I found little Timmy on the side of the road. He's in my car now, and I want to know his address. So I can take him home, of course."

Do you trust a random stranger who says they have a student of yours (but you don't know 100% that they have the kid) with somebody's home address? They could easily be asking for the address so they could send a ransom note. Or they found a kid's name in the yearbook, made up a story, and are planning on kidnapping the kid.

I'm with TGal. Stop for the kid and call the cops. You can't let a little kid wander around, but all it would have taken was a little bit of common sense to keep this from becoming an issue.
 
The woman also had her 10 year old son in her car...so at least he is a witness. And the school wasn''t even aware the boy was missing! Unreal. But are they being charged? Nope.

And yes, she should have called the police, but as a mom, I can understand her just wanting to return the child to his house too... I would have probably called the police first, but in a situation like that you really don''t know that it is going to get totally out of hand.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 2:03:43 PM
Author: princesss
I think it''s kind of ridiculous, but imagine being the school worker who gets this call:

''Hi, I found little Timmy on the side of the road. He''s in my car now, and I want to know his address. So I can take him home, of course.''

Do you trust a random stranger who says they have a student of yours (but you don''t know 100% that they have the kid) with somebody''s home address? They could easily be asking for the address so they could send a ransom note. Or they found a kid''s name in the yearbook, made up a story, and are planning on kidnapping the kid.

I''m with TGal. Stop for the kid and call the cops. You can''t let a little kid wander around, but all it would have taken was a little bit of common sense to keep this from becoming an issue.
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ditto. its unfortunate for the woman, but yep, common sense should have kicked in.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 2:06:12 PM
Author: D&T
Date: 6/29/2009 2:03:43 PM

Author: princesss

I think it''s kind of ridiculous, but imagine being the school worker who gets this call:


''Hi, I found little Timmy on the side of the road. He''s in my car now, and I want to know his address. So I can take him home, of course.''


Do you trust a random stranger who says they have a student of yours (but you don''t know 100% that they have the kid) with somebody''s home address? They could easily be asking for the address so they could send a ransom note. Or they found a kid''s name in the yearbook, made up a story, and are planning on kidnapping the kid.


I''m with TGal. Stop for the kid and call the cops. You can''t let a little kid wander around, but all it would have taken was a little bit of common sense to keep this from becoming an issue.
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ditto. its unfortunate for the woman, but yep, common sense should have kicked in.
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Yes, but can you imagine how she felt as well, to hear they didn''t even know the child was missing? In her mind, she was trying to do the right thing, so yeah, while it sounds ''out there'' to us, at that moment it made sense to her...

And maybe she deserves a fine or something, for taking him in the car, but not kidnapping charges! yikes...what a mess.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 2:08:51 PM
Author: Ara Ann

Date: 6/29/2009 2:06:12 PM
Author: D&T

Date: 6/29/2009 2:03:43 PM

Author: princesss

I think it''s kind of ridiculous, but imagine being the school worker who gets this call:


''Hi, I found little Timmy on the side of the road. He''s in my car now, and I want to know his address. So I can take him home, of course.''


Do you trust a random stranger who says they have a student of yours (but you don''t know 100% that they have the kid) with somebody''s home address? They could easily be asking for the address so they could send a ransom note. Or they found a kid''s name in the yearbook, made up a story, and are planning on kidnapping the kid.


I''m with TGal. Stop for the kid and call the cops. You can''t let a little kid wander around, but all it would have taken was a little bit of common sense to keep this from becoming an issue.
Click to expand...
ditto. its unfortunate for the woman, but yep, common sense should have kicked in.
Click to expand...

Yes, but can you imagine how she felt as well, to hear they didn''t even know the child was missing? In her mind, she was trying to do the right thing, so yeah, while it sounds ''out there'' to us, at that moment it made sense to her...

And maybe she deserves a fine or something, for taking him in the car, but not kidnapping charges! yikes...what a mess.
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yeah, even the school is at fault. We''re such a letigious society. Who was the one bringing up the charges? the parents of the missing/found child?
 
I didn''t catch who exactly was pressing charges, but it sounded to me like it was the State of Nevada and not the parents.

What if a different kind of person found this boy instead? He could have been TRULY kidnapped and worse...that''s what is maddening...most convicted child molesters don''t even get life in prison, but that''s what she is facing if convicted...sickening.
 
Wow, that just blows my mind.
 
It''s a waste of money to prosecute this.
 
It would''ve made more sense for her to pull over when she saw him and get out, take him over to the sidewalk and sit w/him while she called 911 on her cell..not put him in the car w/her. I can understand why she took him w/her, mommy instinct and all, but in this day and age, unfortunately you just can''t do stuff like that anymore w/out someone getting their panties in a wad. Hopefully the parents of the little boy are there and can testify for her that they''re just glad he''s ok. If he was supposed to be at the school and wandered away *again* I think I''d be moooore than a little fed up and irritated w/the school rather than the woman.
 
I think it is easy to say what I *think* I would do in any situation but sometimes what I *really* do is different. Obviously she was not thinking clearly and was panicked and wanted to get this boy home. hopefully the charges with be dropped.
 
Back in the ol days when I was growing up, man things were different. My mom and my aunt would drop off all the kids at the park, go grocery shopping, and come back to pick us up. There were 8 of us. In retrospect yeah that sounds odd but at the same time we often played together as a big group in the neighborhood streets, kick the can whatever, with no adult supervision either. Well my sister got hurt. Another mom was there, quickly realized our parents were not there and drove my sister to the ER to get stitches. I guess if that happened now (not only would my mom be charged with child neglect) I guess that mom would be prosecuted for kidnapping.
 
I always suspect with these "can you believe it?" type stories that there's more to it than we're hearing. But to answer your question, what would I have done? Get him to a place of safety immediately (which may be her car), have a quick glance around for parents, and if I didn't find any, call the police right away. I would not have called around schools.
 
Of course the logical thing to have done would have been to call the police. But, I''m sure we''ve all been in situations where logic just seems to fly out the window, and for this person, it turned into a 90 minute affair. She probably thought it would take 5 minutes to take this kid home and everything would be all set. I can''t see the judge actually prosecuting this woman in this case, obviously the intentions were good. At least I hope not...
 
There seems to be a bit more to the story. Here's an article from when the incident happened:

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8987005


ETA - It appears that one of the women has already be acquitted. http://www.lvrj.com/news/46453772.html

For those that don't want to click the link, the woman was trying to make a point about safety at the school so she took the kid and drove around with him, including a stop to Walmart, and then dropped him at another woman's house. She apparently was not looking for the boy's house but wanted to show how easily a child could be kidnapped from that school. She even called the local media.

I would be beyond furious if this woman took my child to prove her point.
 
Well, she''s paid the price for that stupid stunt. I''d be pissed off too. But she still doesn''t deserve prison for it.
 
Aha, now this makes a bit more sense! None of that was mentioned in the parts of the program I saw...this is a whole other story. Thanks for the link!!!


But yes, the school must have problems, especially with this particular boy, who was sometimes assigned an assistant to get him to his classes, because he habitually wandered off and wouldn''t go to his classroom. They knew he had a problem, but didn''t know he had left the building... The woman went way beyond her boundaries with what she did...no excuse for that. However, I still think life in prison is too extreme for what she did...again, child molesters get off with a much lesser punishment than that.
 
Well then that certainly changes things.
 
Completely agree that prison is still way to extreme.
 
Interesting...how could they think THAT would be a good idea?!?!?
 
Prison no, but a weekend in the county lockup and another 40 hours community service might teach her that there is a better way to make your point.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 3:35:29 PM
Author: purrfectpear
Prison no, but a weekend in the county lockup and another 40 hours community service might teach her that there is a better way to make your point.
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Agreed. What a dumb thing to do. Imagine how worried that poor boy''s parents must have been when the school told them the "kidnappers" refused to return the boy to the school. That 90 minutes probably seemed like 90 years to them. For all they knew, these women could have been unstable and doing god knows what to the kid.

38.gif
 
Date: 6/29/2009 3:06:58 PM
Author: lucyandroger
There seems to be a bit more to the story. Here''s an article from when the incident happened:

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8987005


ETA - It appears that one of the women has already be acquitted. http://www.lvrj.com/news/46453772.html

For those that don''t want to click the link, the woman was trying to make a point about safety at the school so she took the kid and drove around with him, including a stop to Walmart, and then dropped him at another woman''s house. She apparently was not looking for the boy''s house but wanted to show how easily a child could be kidnapped from that school. She even called the local media.

I would be beyond furious if this woman took my child to prove her point.
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For once I read the responses as I was going to add this.

She had no business picking up a child she didnt know. If she wanted to stage something she should have set something up with approval from a parent. At least she contacted the school but that doesn''t make what she did o.k.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 3:06:58 PM
Author: lucyandroger
There seems to be a bit more to the story. Here''s an article from when the incident happened:

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8987005


ETA - It appears that one of the women has already be acquitted. http://www.lvrj.com/news/46453772.html

For those that don''t want to click the link, the woman was trying to make a point about safety at the school so she took the kid and drove around with him, including a stop to Walmart, and then dropped him at another woman''s house. She apparently was not looking for the boy''s house but wanted to show how easily a child could be kidnapped from that school. She even called the local media.

I would be beyond furious if this woman took my child to prove her point.
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ummmm that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If true, she DOES deserve prosecution.
 
Ahhh I see..that still is so ridiculous. Not deserving of life in prison but boy if I was the boys mom I''d want to slap the woman silly, and the school too. Did she just have the thought pop into her (addlebrained) head when she saw this little boy in the street? Hmm I think I''ll stop and pick this kid up to show how easily a child can be taken, drive around with him and let people know I''m doing it, even tho the boy''s parents will be freaked out-I just really need to prove a point.
 
Date: 6/29/2009 3:48:28 PM
Author: packrat
Ahhh I see..that still is so ridiculous. Not deserving of life in prison but boy if I was the boys mom I''d want to slap the woman silly, and the school too. Did she just have the thought pop into her (addlebrained) head when she saw this little boy in the street? Hmm I think I''ll stop and pick this kid up to show how easily a child can be taken, drive around with him and let people know I''m doing it, even tho the boy''s parents will be freaked out-I just really need to prove a point.
Click to expand...
I agree. Totally different story now. Ugh.
 
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