It's not all bad news...

[Patrysha]

To shake off the heebie jeebies of huggytree's last job...I bring you a story about my community that both scared and comforted this week.

Whitecourt abduction on MSN Video

The school shown is the one my middle son (the 11 year old) goes to.

[vangogh]

Potentially very scary, but a very happy ending. Says good things about your community too. Makes you wonder how many people across the country would have bothered to go out to confront the guy or chase him down.

Must really hit home too if your son goes to school there.

[Patrysha]

What gets me is the guts it took for the first lady to question the man and protect the girl. I don't really know her but I am so stinkin' proud of her. Does that make sense?

I've never really been one to think that we're any safer from things like predators in a small town, they are everywhere (it's part of the reason why I still walk/drive my youngest to school) but how many stories do you hear about people stopping one before they can do any harm? Of someone who says "Whoa, that doesn't look right" and questions it. Of course, with the age of the perp...he's likely done a lot of harm along the way...but this time, this time it was stopped.

Just a couple of months ago, it was in either January or February, the same school had an incident where a child was "missing" from that school. (He wasn't really missing there was a mis-communication between his older siblings and his parents about who was to pick him up) but the town went into action and people were out looking for him within no time at all...

For all it's flaws, this really is the type of place that is pretty vigilant about looking out for kids...

[Blessed]

Now those are the kind of neighbors I want to have.

We all know each other on our street - and look out for each other's kids, now that my oldest is getting big enough that she wants to play outside, I'm extra thankful for that.

[vangogh]

The woman who confronted him had kids, right? I wonder if she would have behaved differently if she didn't have children.

It's great that she did what she did.

[Patrysha]

Yes, the woman who confronted him had kids, it was actually her young son who originally spotted the situation.

The man who cornered the suspect with the hood of his car after the lady had separated the girl from the man and pushed the girl into her own house also has a child going to that school.

(There are only three elementary schools in town)

Most of the houses along that way either have children or are grandparents (it used to be my son's newspaper route) not a lot of single people choose to live on a school street...

[eborg9]

You know, even though I grew up right across the bridge from Windsor, and spent a good amount of time there, I still don't think of Canada as having the same type of crimes that we have in the U.S...I know very naive of me.

When I do see a story such as this, it's always surprising to me, as opposed to when I see the same story in the U.S., I'm very desensitized to it...not surprised at all and hardly pay much attention unless it's repeated or Nancy Grace is shouting about it when I'm flipping the channels.

[Patrysha]

Yeah, we even had a shooting at a car dealership in the city last week. Disgruntled employee who had killed before...

It can be scary anywhere in the world given the right (or wrong) circumstances.

[eborg9]

..
It can be scary anywhere in the world given the right (or wrong) circumstances.

So true. My favorite line on the news when they are interviewing witnesses or people in the area of a recent crime is:
"We never thought anything like that could happen here.", some even add the extra, "..this is such a nice area".

I always think to myself, "You fools."

I don't care where you live or how many gates you live behind, you can't predict human behavior and be so comfortable that you turn your back on basic common sense and a little street smarts.

[billbenson]

Speakers are disconnected right now, so I couldn't watch the video. Eborg mentioned "street smart" which is something not to be ignored. It can be trained to a degree, but some people are naturals. My college job was catching shoplifters for Sears years ago. If my boss said watch someone, they always stole something, independant of their appearance (lawyer, housewife, grandmother, kits, politicians).

My wife is the same. If we enter a department store in the mens department, pass though several departments going to womans wear; she can tell you what everyone in each department was wearing every place we passed through. She also has a 6th sense about who may steal in this case or people to stay away from when walking through a parking lot or whatever.

I'm ok at it since the Sears job taught you to try to find people that would steal something. But some people are amazing at it.

In any case, you can train yourself to a degree. Note people around you and what they are doing instead of day dreaming as you walk or drive. Maybe you can help someone someday (including yourself). I've called the police twice in the last year or so on suspicious people. Most notably 2am and someone watching a girl filling her car from a distance in the dark.