MBOMBELA – A recent spate of attempted kidnappings in parts of Gauteng, has left many adults feeling ill at ease.
Not only do parents in affected areas look over their shoulders when shopping with their little ones, those in Mbombela have recently started to become more and more concerned. This is after a six-year-old girl was reported to have “almost been kidnapped” at a local shopping centre. Her mother reported the matter on social media and the safety of children became a real bone of contention, with comments ranging from empathy to concerns for the safety of locals’ own kids.
“I was turning my back when I saw a man enter the aisle. My daughter was in the trolley, facing me. I turned away for a second and when I looked again my daughter was in shock and had fear in her eyes. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, ‘That man pinched me’.”
He was approached by the woman’s mother and he tried to explain that he had never had any bad intentions and that it was just an innocent gesture. According to the woman, the man made a hasty retreat, cutting past other shoppers in the checkout line. “I noticed a female with him,” said the girl’s mom. This fits exactly the profile of kidnappers described in other media, lurking around Pretoria and surroundings. “The man never works alone, he is always accompanied by either one or two females,” she said and warned parents to be vigilant. This would make any parent anxious, and it was voiced on social media this week. She requested to see the security footage and management of the centre fully cooperated to accommodate her needs. First it checked the footage and saw nothing out of the ordinary happen and the woman had to be called in to assist in identifying the alleged kidnapper.
The shaken-up mom went through the footage, and it came to light that it was merely an act of the man being overly friendly and he might have transgressed personal boundaries. The footage revealed that he had meant no harm. It was also clear that he had never cut past the shoppers, and that he had no female companion as described by the mother. “I was in shock,” she told management. She added that it had felt much worse at the time, than it looked on CCTV footage. “I have that fear every single day that my child might be taken from me.” The centre’s manager said even though a kidnapping didn’t occur, parents should still be vigilant as something like this could happen to anyone.
Lowelder’s sister publication Pretoria East Record, which had extensively reported on at least five attempted kidnappings in their area, provided the following tips:
• People should always be paranoid
• Parents should always be on the alert
• They need to prepare and have discussions about such misfortunes
• When walking, never let your children out of your sight
• Don’t allow your kids to go to the bathrooms in shopping centres alone
• Always hold your child’s hand when walking.
Also read: Eight-week-old baby almost taken from mother
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