Let's Not Meet Again

The Kidnappers in the 1990 Camry

To give you an idea on where I'm from, I grew up in a nice middle class neighborhood in Maryland about 15 minutes from the border to D.C. We never had any serious crimes in our neighborhood, just the typical petty theft from people leaving their car doors unlocked.

It was a cloudy, chilly Saturday in October of 1993. I was 8 years old, my brother James was 12, we had just left his friends house after playing street hockey on his driveway for hours and we had to get back home around 5:30pm. His house is a couple of blocks away from the elementary school and basically across the street from the school is a pretty big sized park. It's entrance has a fence with a path that separates the fence. Along the street, the fence continues into a backyard to a house which sits on a cul-de-sac.

My brother and I, on the left side, approach the 4-way stop sign and noticed a white 1990 Toyota Camry sitting there. We didn't think anything of it and walked down the sidewalk toward the school. I was talking to him about Art Monk, the Redskins and how we could use the Beckett to write to the stadium and hope to get an autograph (we got the autograph). I realized James was oddly quiet during my idea about writing to the Redskins. I asked him if he was listening and he said "keep talking. Act cool, act normal. Don't look back, ok?". Confused and nervous I responded "ok, what's going on?". During my talk, my brother was paying attention to the Camry, that was driving very slowly behind us. We played it cool, walked our normal pace, just about to pass the school.

I continued my talk, while we were approaching a big field that sits directly across the entrance of the park. My brother put his hand on my chest which made me stop immediately. He turned back and glanced at the driver. Now, I wasn't sure if it was to see how the car would act, if he wanted to make a move across the street into the park, or if he was trying to see a license plate. However, when we stopped, the car stopped, this time I got a good look. The driver was female, brunette hair to the shoulders, she almost looked drugged. She never blinked, she looked straight ahead, not at us, not to the side, straight ahead. The passenger was the intimidating one. He was red-headed, long hair and had this angry look. His eyes watching us intensely. To be honest he looked like the comedian Carrot Top, an evil looking Carrot Top.

After getting a good look, and realizing the situation we were in, I started to get nervous. I was breathing heavily, my legs felt numb, I looked at my brother and he just said "keep walking!". What was weird about this day, there weren't any cars on the road, it felt like a ghost town all of a sudden. It was just us, and them.

We continued walking toward the next block, when the car all of sudden started merging into the other lane. He was going to block us off and then who knows what! My brother being older than me, was faster than me, he knew it, I knew it. Staring straight ahead and looking at our options my brother said "on the count of 3, run, ok? Run as fast as you can and follow me.", before I could even accept the deal, he started his countdown "1....2....3!!".

He is off and running, I'm trying to keep up. The car slams on the accelerator. James is able to run across the street, when I try to do the same, the car almost cuts me off and could feel the bumper against my pants. The Camry now has to back up and accelerate again after us. My brother made the move across to the right side of the street and I followed as fast as I can. I realized he was making a run for our friends house. He gets there and is ringing on the doorbell, banging like crazy. The Camry catches up, the passenger gets out of the car as soon as he gets out, my friends dad opened the door, James rushes in, the red-head gets back in his car and I dive through the open door. My friend's dad runs out towards the car speeding off, yells something as he tries to get his license plate. I'm crying, my brothers crying, my friends dad is shaken up. Even though we live a block away, we had our dad come pick us up.

We called the police, wrote a report, they said they'll keep their eyes open. On Monday we notified the elementary school about our ordeal, however they didn't do much to let the public know. It wasn't until the next week that they sent out a flier to the rest of the parents, and cops began patrolling the neighborhood. See, during the week, 3 other cases happened with that white Camry, following kids. One was even more terrifying that my experience where the kids were jumping through backyards cause the red-head was chasing them through the park. After that week of disturbances, everything stopped. I never heard of an arrest, I don't know if they moved on to another city or state to try to abduct kids. All I know is that they terrified our neighborhood that year, and it took a little while for things to seem normal.

The brunette, I always wondered what her roll was. Why would she participate in a terrorizing, menacing act? Either way, her face and that ugly, nasty red head man are etched in my brain. Let's not meet, because if we do, I may have to kill you. Hopefully you're in jail, rotting away, or already dead, because you're a scumbag.