Right now here in Davenport, Iowa we have to keep our kids under lock and key!
Why you ask?
Well, so perv has decided to drive around to the grade schools and try to abduct 9 or so year old little girls.
What a freak! I now have to take my kids back a forth to school like they were prisoners. They love walking with their friends when weather permits.
The kids are now terrified of anyone in a dark truck who drives by. On one hand that is not a bad thing, because I don’t want them talking to strangers, but on the other hand I don’t care for my children living in fear either.
It has happened at three of the local schools which are all fairly close. The three children who were confronted described the same truck, and the same man, but our wise police department hasn’t decided if the cases are related or not. Um, hello? Does this make sense to anybody but them?
Sorry bout the little rant here. I know that many people here are parents, and even those who aren’t might understand. I just hate being scared for my children. It almost makes me feel helpless.
Kricket, I’m not a parent, but stuff like this makes me crazy-- I despise people who prey on kids, and I can’t imagine how tense you must feel right now.
I hope your local police catch this guy, and fast. I don’t know why they haven’t decided the cases are related; I suppose there could be some official reason for that but I’m not clear on how these investigations work. I can’t imagine that they’d come to the conclusion that it’s three different guys in three different trucks. The only thing I can think of, and this is a complete WAG, is that they suspect this is some kind of made-up story going around among the kids, but I can’t really make myself believe that’s their rationale.
Keep us updated-- I’m off to see if I can find some links for this one.
Gamera is really neat, he is full of turtle meat, we’ve been eating Gam-er-aaaa…
Y’know I hope I meet one of of these pieces of monkey shit. Because I swear I would make him die in slow torturous ways that would cause Satan himself to vomit!
Although the schools are fairly close, I don’t see how these little girls due to their ages and range of mobility could have come up with the same descriptions.
Dark Blue or black newer truck with a white blonde male.
He tried it this morning two blocks from my house. When my kids were two minutes late getting home, because I was unable to meet them today, I freaked out. It was a mix-up with the babysitter and I not being sure if I was going to make it on time to pick them up, so she did.
I know that the police really have to wait to catch him, but it scares me to think that some child may get hurt before it stops. Not just a fear for mine, but anyone’s child.
When I was up at the hospital when my youngest son was ill, there was a mother in the next room who’s child had died right there. You have never heard such a noise come out of a human being, and I just about had a break down myself, feeling her pain. My son was deathly ill at the time, and I couldn’t help but wonder is he next.
I am a very empithetic person when it comes to others pain and loss.
Sorry to ramble on so guys, I guess I just need someone to talk to.
Believe me when I say I know how it feels to fear for your children. I’m from Flint, MI. You’ve been hearing a lot about my fair city in the news lately. There’s a small township that borders Flint called Beecher. That’s where that six-year-old boy shot & killed his six-year-old classmate.
I’ve got two kids, neither of them old enough to be in school. I’m still pretty wigged out, though.
I do not understand why people do what you’ve described, though, Kricket. There’s some real wackos out there. I guess all we as parents can do is educate our kids about the dangers that do exist today. I don’t want to raise paranoid kids, I really don’t. But kids today need to know that bad stuff exists, and it could happen to them. The more they know, the easier it will be for them to recognize the bad stuff when they face it, and maybe they can even prevent the bad stuff from happening, to themselves or someone else.
Sorry about that last run-on sentence there, but when I start thinking about bad stuff happening to kids, I get a bit weirded out.
This space blank, until Wally thinks up something cool to put here.
Kricket, you’re not rambling at all. I know how those seconds tick by like hours when you’re wondering where your children are. It made me sick thinking about what you said. I’m sorry you have to deal with sickos like that. I hope they catch him soon and put him out of comission for a long time, if not forever.
No dear Rosebud, I didn’t think that that was what YOU were saying. I understood what you were saying, my reply just came off badly sorry to offend. My mind is working a mile a minute when I think about this.
I have been visiting other threads to try to think of something else, and not put to much bad energy out there for this.
Cristi, how terrible to be that close isn’t it? Sometimes I just want to bubble my kids and never let them out. But, as you said we can’t raise paraniod children, we can only teach them right from wrong and how to react to that type of situation.
Are people getting worse? Is it something in the water?
Last year we had a guy kidnap his girlfriend three year old daughter from the babysitters house, take her across the river and kill her. She was just a baby, and ran to him with open arms calling him daddy! He said that he did it just to get back at her mother. Now he says that he didn’t do it. Yeah, right.
Okay, I know I am not the judge and jury here, but her body was found in his car hours after HE took her against the babysitters will and a restraining order.
There are dozens of stories that hit close to home when they happen so close to home.
Again I ask. What is happening to society? Is it because our penalties in some places aren’t strict enough? Or do these people just not have a consience?
It’s nice to see you posting again, Kricket, but boy, I’m sorry it is because of the creeps your kids have to deal with already. I didn’t see where you mentioned their ages, but when my sons had to walk to the bus stop about 100 yards from our house, I bought them two whistles. They kept the whistles on a small thin string in their pockets. I always told them, not to worry about what anyone else thought, but if they were ever concerned about the “look” they were being given by someone they didn’t know, or if they felt in any danger, blow the whistle as loud as they could. We even practiced in the back yard. It seemed to calm them down somewhat and put them in control of their own territory.
Maybe you’d like to give it a try, though I STILL would stay stapled to my kids in your place. Because the predator really has been seen.
Also another ‘game’ I started with the boys is ‘reading’ license plates. I didn’t make a big thing of why, but I just started when we’d be in the car together to get THEM doing the same thing. So, 295 BTD would become ‘big tree down’ and make the numbers a math problem, can you tell I home school?? Pretty soon, they were noticing the license plates of cars and making up stories with the numbers and letters on their own with no prompting.
If they find the rodent, please come back and tell us, okay?
No, dear Kricket! No offense taken! It’s just that I watched my own mom go through some very scary moments regarding my brother when we were small, and I wanted to make sure I hadn’t come across as anything less than sympathetic. You don’t soon forget the look of pure anguish on a parent’s face when they think something could happen (or already has happened) to a child.
Hope you and the kids are doing okay… for what it’s worth, I’m thinking about you!
Gamera is really neat, he is full of turtle meat, we’ve been eating Gam-er-aaaa…
What’s really depressing is the fact that someone has to know who this freak is. They just won’t come out and let the cops know because you “don’t do that to friends.”
A couple years ago here in Burlington, IA, a little girl was shot and killed by a friend who had found a gun under the porch. The cops quickly fingered who the gun belonged to, a felon who wasn’t supposed to have a gun, so much for background checks! It was easy for the cops to find the guy because a neighbor who was a mother herself told the police that the guy had brought a gun into her house asking her to hide it for him and she refused, so he apparently stashed it under the porch. Days before the trial was to start, the key witness, a mother heself, went in and recanted, so the guy walked.
Someone knows who this freak is, and they are just as low in the ladder of life as the perpetrator.
Well, took the kids back and forth to school today and my imagination went wild.
You never know how many people drive black trucks in your area until you are leary of them!
The whistle idea sounds great, but how do you keep them from blowing them when it isn’t appropriate? One of my kids is ADHD, and is doing well with it, but sometimes he gets carried away with story telling. I know that happens with most kids, but he just gets really colorful with it sometimes. Any suggestions to help remedy that?
Anyway, this jerk seems to be staying in one general location. My only concern is that now that he is getting all of this media attention he will go into hiding and not be caught.
I guess it is a catch 22 on this though isn’t it? You want it stopped but how? If he goes into hiding it stops for a while, and we are all left wondering when he will try again. If the keystone cops here catch him, that means that chances are he did something to someones child.
And yeah, somebody has to know him. Why wouldn’t they turn him in? Do you think that they stop to think that if he doesn’t get what he wants from other peoples kids, that he might come after theirs?
Thank you guys for listening to me, it is nice to know that we are all out there for each other.
Kricket, I teach, and we have caught a perv and the local police ran him out on a rail… The key thing to nailing him was the kids… They know when something is wrong, and if the kids can get to the right folks we can get the bastards! The big thing that I teach the kids is that if they think something is wrong IT IS, and they need to talk to someone (you)… Hang in there!!
Justwannano, I just saw it on the news at dinner time that yes, he did try it again this morning. I wasn’t sure if it was a report on what happened yesterday that you saw, or what.
The scarier thing is he was staying in a certain area, but now he moved to the Illinois side of the Quad Cities. And he actually got out of the truck this time!
The two little girls said that he was a darker haired man, thin, 30ish, wearing black pants and tee-shirt with white tennis shoes.
The police are now saying that the attempts are related and that this has been going on since December.
Nobody can figure out why he is trying this every morning and afternoon. Don’t most of these fit a pattern? He has been spotted everyday. The only differance this time is that the girls said he had darker hair. Could be perception if it is dark blonde, or he could have dyed it.
overengineer good point! Yes, the children are a major factor in finding this guy.
They have stepped up the police around the area, and the kids did have a stranger danger meeting at school which I think really sunk in with my kids.
BTW I am going out to Wal-mart tonite and getting them whistles. I will just have to really go over it with my son to make sure that he realizes that it is not a toy in this case. I will also have to call their teachers and let them know what is going on so they don’t get them taken away, or at least given back at the end of the school day.
Mistress Kricket
Kricket.
You’ve probably heard by now that he tried it twice today. this morn in ILL and about 3:20,I think they said back, at farnham and high. If I remember correctly Farmham does something wierd as it crosses Locust. I think my cousin lives 1 block from Farnam and High.
I know that is in your area.He bought his parents house so he has lived there all his life.
The neighbors have probably organized a watch already so it is probably sit back and let the guy catch himself.
Don’t know what to say in a situation like this except hang in there.
justwanna, I think you should go back to bed. Your health is more important than being online. And, I should have said this last night, your wife and daughter shouldn’t have been bugging you about song titles when you’d just had surgery.
“His eyes are as green as a fresh-pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard,
I wish he was mine, he’s really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.”
Pretty soon, they were noticing the license plates of cars and making up stories with the numbers and letters on their own with no prompting.