Real Encounters

*Possibly prevented a kidnapping*

A few years ago, in 2011, I was home on break from college. I decided to go to Kohl's to pick out some new jeans before the semester started. As I was coming out of the dressing room (I needed to see the damage that freshman 15 did to my waistline), I stopped for a moment to text my friend about our plans for that night. As I was standing there, I began to pick up on a conversation around the corner between a man and a young boy. I wasn't paying attention enough to hear what was said before it, but I remember him saying "... just across the street. We'll be back before your daddy even notices, I promise".

I froze in my spot immediately when I heard that. I thought about calling someone, but the realization came that this could be something bad happening right now. And if it's just a misunderstanding, it'd just cause a lot of embarrassment to call the police. I gathered myself up and walked out to see a man walking away with a young boy toward the entrance of the store. He seemed to be in his late 40's-early 50's, pretty well-dressed and clean with some scruff. I power-walked to catch up to them and asked the man -

"Excuse me, is this your son?" He replied - "Oh, laughs, this is my nephew actually"

I had a rush of relief come over me. But I still wanted to make sure, so I asked the boy, "Is this your uncle?" He replied - "No, he said we-" and before he could finish, the man turned and briskly started walking out of the store at a pace almost impressive for a walk. I started thinking "oh my god" and didn't really know what to do, but there was no one else around to see this happening and I'm left with a confused little boy, so I figured I should help him find his dad.

I've never been in a situation like this before and I'm not the best with kids, but I tried to be as positive and non-freaked out as I could as I asked him where his dad might be. We walked back to the dressing room but it was empty, so I figured he had left to look for his son. We walked around the store for a little bit, and as we were, he asked me who that man was. I said "hmm I'm not sure, I think he just wanted someone to hang out with". He didn't seem fazed by the situation for the most part but did look a little worried now like he might've realized what was going on.

After a few minutes, I heard a voice behind me yell the boy's name. I turned around and asked him "is that your daddy?", and he replied "yeah!" The father walked over to us with a "wtf are you doing?" face to me and grabbed the boy's arm to bring him to his side. He asked me "who are you?", and I asked if I could talk to him for a moment, gesturing away from the boy so he wouldn't hear.

I explained the situation to him and gave him a description of the man. He turned to his son and asked him if another man tried to bring him somewhere, and the boy responded "yeah, this other guy was gonna get us ice cream" (there was an ice cream place right across the freeway). He developed a strong look of frustration and anger on his face, but simply thanked me and I went on my way. I didn't see any police cars or security show up by the time I left, so I'm not sure if I should've stayed in case he called them, but I was pretty shaken up by the incident and couldn't wait to get home.

I remember a small blurb in the newspaper about the attempted abduction along with a description of the guy, but I don't know if anything came of it. I still can't believe that kind of this still happens in this time, and as unheroic as I am I managed to be in the right place at the right time to stop it.

Credits: Reddit - troof93