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 (http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/whitecourt-abduction/16a9dry9c)

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...

[Harold Mansfield]

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.

[Harold Mansfield]

..
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.

[KristineS]

What gets me is how many people will see something that looks wrong and not do anything. I think a lot of us have the keep our heads down and stay out of it mentality these days, precisely because there are people out there who could be whackos. I always try to be aware of my surroundings and if something tells me that I should get out of a situation I do. Maybe I'm wrong and nothing will happen, but I'd rather be wrong and alive.

[Harold Mansfield]

A couple of weeks ago I was in line at the supermarket to pay my gas bill. I was already in a bad mood because I had to physically go out to pay it since for some reason my debit wasn't working with the online payment site ( and I don't have any checks).

Behind the line is a Coinstar machine and there was a guy having issues with it and was giving the lady who was helping him a big attitude.
Everyone in line noticed because he was loud and basically acting like an ass to this poor girl.
All of the other men in line basically put their heads down and looked the other way, which was amazing to me...usually men will come to the aide of a women, especially a young pretty one.

I would have been more than happy to not get involved until he started insulting her.

I don't know what his deal was, maybe he was pissed that he was cashing in coins to live (we have all been there at a time or 2), but that was no reason to treat anyone the way he was acting and being already pissed that I'm standing in line and now I gotta listen to this idiot bitch about $19 worth of coins...I had to say something...and basically told him to "stop acting like an idiot, she's trying to help you"

Of course then he turned his anger towards me, which, by then I had already sized up the possibilities. (I'm a stocky guy, don't smile much and many times have to go out of my way not to be intimating to people,).

Here's the street smarts part, I'm not a complete idiot:
*It was warm that day so he was in shorts and a polo shirt.
*No obvious bulges under his clothing
*Didn't see anyone else with him.
*Didn't appear to high on anything
*Polo tucked in, nothing on his belt like a knife
*Nothing that could be used as a weapon within immediate reach

He wasn't dumb enough to really get in my face because I had him by at least 40lbs and 4 inches in height, but some words were exchanged where I basically told him to stop talking to her like that or I was going to bust his ass.

By then she returned with the manager, who also put him in his place and finished helping him...but I was waiting for him to make a dumb move to jump at him. Of course on the way out he cursed me, the manager, the girl, my mother and everyone else, but he did it walking.

9 times out of 10, I don't get involved, but I can't sit back and watch people unfairly treat customer service people like that.
Maybe it's because I used to be in the Hospitality Industry and didn't take any crap from customers ( I was usually the one my female coworkers would call to bounce someone out), but it is usually one of the instances where I will come to someone's aid out of the blue.

Any man that berates and intimidates a woman like that is no man and usually will not do the same to another man of equal or larger stature.

I'll get in on those every time. I guess it's the old Bartender in me. Sometimes, I think throwing people out is one of the only things I actually miss about the business.

Obviously not the same horrible scenario as the original story of the thread, but if people will sit by and watch the little things in life go idly by, you can bet they will run when the big stuff happens.
If that guy had turned violent, how many of those men in that line with me would have moved out of the way and watched him hurt that girl or worse other people ?

Sometimes when people are being jerks, suspicious or causing a problem, they need to know that people around them are aware of it and them and are watching.

Criminals obviously depend on people being to scared to get involved or else they would never attempt some of the brazen things they do in broad daylight.

[Spider]

Yeah! It's not so bad for you big guys! I'm a skinny 5'11" 140lbs. What bully boy is going to take lip from me?! So, I carry a small sheath knife. Not that I'd know how to use it if "he" had one, too!

Several years ago, someone was carrying on about how I'd parked my car, swearing and cussing over I don't know what. I argued back and he started round his vehicle heading towards me. Oh boy!

So, I took the knife out of my pocket and stuck in my belt, releasing the strap. Fortunately, he stopped, retreated, jumped in his car a drove off. He was way bigger than me, a lot younger and would have made mincemeat out of me. I'm much quicker with the cellphone 911 nowadays!

[Harold Mansfield]

Yeah! It's not so bad for you big guys! I'm a skinny 5'11" 140lbs. What bully boy is going to take lip from me?!

I'm always scared you Texas men have a little pistol in your belt buckle or something.
Old stereotype that everyone in Texas has a pistol on them.
What is the law there ? You can carry a side arm in plain view or something like that?

[Patrysha]

At 5'4'' and 120lbs the only thing scared of me is our cat. I'm kind of scrappy...so in a fight I'd cause some damage, but I would go down. I think my 13 year old could take me and probably the 11 year old too if they ever put their mind to it.

I've never held a pistol, but I once shocked my then-boyfriend-now husband (Ahhh! 20 years since we met as of this Friday!!) with my rifle skillz on the range :-D. We have no guns in the house having sold them off when we were broke university students after 3 years of no funds to go hunting.

I'd like to think I'd get involved if I saw something wrong. I have in minor things like a toddler running away in front of a store. And stopping the car one day when I saw a couple of kids walking and the littler one fell on ice and the bigger brother was yanking him hard by the arm to get him up in anger and frustration and the little one kept slipping on the ice. I got out of the car, helped the little one up and gave him a hug and made sure he was steady.

I totally agree that part of safety is being totally aware of your surroundings. I hope to pass those lessons on my kids but I don't trust them to stick. When I think of the risks as I took as a teen with the hitchiking and other crazy stuff...yikes!

Part of me thinks that little girl shouldn't have been walking alone. Either 1 adult or two other kids should have been with her. (I don't think kids always need to be with an adult, but I do think if they aren't with an adult then they have to use the double buddy system)

[Spider]

I'm always scared you Texas men have a little pistol in your belt buckle or something.
Old stereotype that everyone in Texas has a pistol on them.
What is the law there ? You can carry a side arm in plain view or something like that?I'm not sure. What I know is what I see, and that is nobody but police officers and owners of pawn shops carry openly. But then nobody but me wears a westen hat except at rodeo time (like now) and evening patrons of western dancehalls.

I hear a lot of talk that suggests people commonly carry a pistol in the glove compartment of their car and some ladies carry a small pistol in their purse. But talk is cheap, so who knows whether it's bravado or fact.

Doesn't bother me. At 140 lbs, I can run fast!!!!