Weird Happenings at the Bus Stop

[Mr. E. Monkey]

Call for artillery.

Call 911. I would not let that van out of my sight.

I am going to get to the bottom of this one way or another.

If I am wrong I will say I am sorry, But I would not let this go.

Or that. Yeah, Ima agree with Braxton.

[98pointsix]

I am willing to bet solid money that Mr. Hero of the Day had kids and that likely will effect some responses.

Having kids is a perspective altering event.
I agree with the preJeriah responses 911, give plate, follow, watch for fireworks.
PostJeriah though Im stopping the van. I cant give this situation a chance to escalate. The chance of this kid living though this get really bad once they make it to a secondary location. Whats the worst thing thats going to happen if Im wrong couple nights in jail, some community service, and a fine? I can live with that. Ive done it before for dumb crap, why not this.

If I was picking up my kid and they were being a turd and I had to grab them up and put them in the car, the whole time them crying and throwing a fit. I would understand if someone stopped me, I would be irritated and annoyed but I really couldnt hold it against the person.

If it is his kid and he gets pissed at me , screw him I hope somebody snatches his kid

[Crazy Wolf]

OK, so it's a no-brainer, so I hope no one objects if I throw a wrench in this monkey...

You do the obvious right thing: follow the van, try to make out its license plate while dialing 911.

And your phone's dead.

Don't tell me why this can't happen to you; phones BREAK even if you've got a car charger and a spare. Or maybe there's no signal. Maybe your phone took a bullet 20 minutes ago the LAST time you did the right thing. Whatever.

What do you do now?

If I'm convinced that bad shit is going on? Assuming I'm driving: get on the tail of that car, and begin honking, flashing my lights, and driving in a risky manner. Basically, anything that should generate a lot of police attention. If police attention is gained, then finding some way to force the van off the road while minimizing risk to the (non-driver) inhabitants would be the next goal, probably pulling up alongside it and driving in such a way as to push the van off-road, or at the very least make the police wonder what my problem with the van is. As it is unlikely that a kidnapped person is secured safely within the vehicle, a collision focused on spinning the van or ramming the rear would probably be a poor decision. Drifting the front passenger side of my car into the front left wheel of the van should do a decent job of fucking up the van's ability to travel any significant distance further while not having the same violence of impact that ramming would give.

If I'm just awfully suspicious? I'd write down the plate numbers, stop my car, and ask someone walking by for a cell phone.

[Huntinbull]

Call 911. follow and observe. If things still looked hinky in the van or if they looked to be escalating, then maybe a pit maneuver would be in order.

[FireEagle1071ad]

My response would depend on one thing, are MY kids in the car? By that would whatever action I am about to take put MY kids in more harm then anothers? So if my kids where in the car, I would call 9-1-1 and follow as safely as I could. If the kids weren't in the car its follow that fucking van at whatever cost until PD shows up to pull them over. Yes I would be on the phone with 9-1-1 the whole time to ensure PD knew to stop the van i was following. I would worry about causing wrecks and traffic laws after PD made contact with the suspicious vehicle, I guess in short I would adopt the theory of its better to ask for forgiveness then ask for permission.

An add on since I do have childern, if I knew the kid (i.e. neighbor or friend of my kids) and was 95% or more sure that something was wrong and the kid had no legit relationship to the guy. I would do whatever it took to stop the van ASAP, would I call 9-1-1 yes and probably do so as I was figuring out how make the vehicle stop. Again its better to beg for forgiveness then to ask for permission. As another poster stated if my kid was acting out and someone intervened, called 9-1-1 at first I would be ticked. However given a minute or two to think it out I would be cool and probably thank the guy, no harm, no foul. There are a ton of pervs in this world and responsible adults need to step up and help protect the weak in society.

[squinty]

Follow, memorize license plate and note whatever you think are salient details. Even if you don't have cell service, can you take video? Esp. if they stop and the driver or other adult gets out. Try to keep some awareness of their location until law enforcement is around to take up the problem.

Be prepared to apologize, like others have said, if you turn out to be wrong about the situation.

No recourse to violence, no guns drawn/pit maneuvers or anything like that. What if the van starts to speed really fast or drive recklessly to get away from you? Stay in hot pursuit, or lose them? Which option puts the child, and others, in more danger? I want to say I'd let them drive on at that point. But it would take some will power not to keep chasing them, once I'd started.

[ThePhuckStopsHere]

Do whatever you gotta do to save that kids life ........

[MrUgly]

OK, so it's a no-brainer, so I hope no one objects if I throw a wrench in this monkey...

You do the obvious right thing: follow the van, try to make out its license plate while dialing 911.

And your phone's dead.

Don't tell me why this can't happen to you; phones BREAK even if you've got a car charger and a spare. Or maybe there's no signal. Maybe your phone took a bullet 20 minutes ago the LAST time you did the right thing. Whatever.

What do you do now?

Continue following the van while laying on my horn. beep beep beep beeeep beeeeep beeeep beep beep beep/repeat. Make noise. Yell out the window to call the cops. I don't care if the cops are following me or the van.

[Jim_in_Calgary]

I have 2 little girls and this happening to them is a nightmare. If I saw it happening to someone else's kid, it's nearly as troubling.

I would follow that van while on the cell phone to the police. I would not let that van out of my sight no matter the risk of being jailed for it or writing off my car in the process. I'm pretty sure 1 of every 2 passersby in cars or on foot would intervene as well. What I wouldn't do in this situation is care about the risk of being impolite, embarassed or even having committed a minor criminal offense.

If I dragged my own child off the street in a similar situation due to the kid being rebellious or whatever, I wouldn't hold it against an intervening bystander, and I would even call and wait for the police to come and sort out the situation. I'd probably thank the bystander afterwards too.

I've thought many times about stuff like this since I became a dad. I'd step in front of a bullet this very second if it was heading for one of my girls. on the other side of the coin, I'm not a violent person, but I also wouldn't hesitate to use unlimited violence to protect my kids.

But I've often asked myself what I would do to protect a child I don't know. My thought and hope is that I'd do damn near anything to protect a child that was a stranger to me, the question is always leads up to the big one. If it was definitely my 42 year old life or that of a child (stranger) just beginning their life, what would I do? That's a tough one, given that my kids depend on me...but even still they could get by without me. Up until the risk approached certain death, I don't think I'd be able to look at myself in the mirror for the rest of my life if that van got away and that little girl was hurt. Would some time in jail, or some damage/personal injury spared seem worth it when balanced against the life of a child?

In my books there is no choice. I believe and hope that almost every parent would fight like a lion to not let this van get away in those circumstances. As someone pointed out, becoming a parent is life-altering. Here on this site there is a ton of bad side of humanity discussed. There's a ton of good in humanity too, and I think most would intervene.

[Wasteland.Soldier]

In my books there is no choice. I believe and hope that almost every parent would fight like a lion to not let this van get away in those circumstances. As someone pointed out, becoming a parent is life-altering. Here on this site there is a ton of bad side of humanity discussed. There's a ton of good in humanity too, and I think most would intervene.

Hey man. I'm from Calgary too.

I just wanted to mention that I'm not a parent, but if I saw shit like this happening, I'm fairly certain I would do absolutely everything required to save the kid. Including doing 160 the wrong way up the Deerfoot if it came to it. I don't think you've got to be a parent to hate seeing kids hurt, and wanting to harm those that would do the hurting. If anything, not being a parent means you have less outside yourself and your values to live for. Like you said, you've got your own kids to worry about.

[Silent Kube]

Like everyone else, I'd call the cops and follow as best I could. Unless it looked like he was going to hurt the child right then, unlikely as he's driving, I'd try not to be noticed. Who knows, you might get lucky and follow him back to the place he's been taking kids for awhile.

I think trying a pit would be a bad idea. Even if you have proper training, vans are top heavy and I would worry that if the van were going fast enough for a pit to work it would be going fast enough to roll when it went sideways. Chances are the kid won't be strapped in.

I do have a question. Someone mentioned cb channel 9. Do the cops still monitor it? I'm seriously asking because I have no idea.

[zengunfighter]

Let's say you go to work every day the same way. Every day you see the same seven year old girl sitting at the bus stop waiting for her ride. She is clearly a latch key kid because mom is never, ever there, although you did see her drop off once or twice on her way to work.

Today while sitting at the light waiting to go you notice a van you have never seen before. The man in the van is talking to the little girl who is clearly agitated. After about 30 seconds or so the man jumps out of the van and pushes the girl inside. He then drives away.

What do you do?

ETA- Just to be clear you would be carrying whatever you normally carry in your car and on your person back and forth to work. For some of us that can be quite a bit.

[zengunfighter]

[quote="Blacksmith"]Let's say you go to work every day the same way. Every day you see the same seven year old girl sitting at the bus stop waiting for her ride. She is clearly a latch key kid because mom is never, ever there, although you did see her drop off once or twice on her way to work.

Today while sitting at the light waiting to go you notice a van you have never seen before. The man in the van is talking to the little girl who is clearly agitated.
[quote]

HERE is where I act. She's not getting in that van. "Miss? Is everything OK?" As soon as the guy knows there is a witness, he will stop. If there is no problem, then there's no problem.

Simple act of blowing the horn will serve the same function.

[Jim_in_Calgary]

In my books there is no choice. I believe and hope that almost every parent would fight like a lion to not let this van get away in those circumstances. As someone pointed out, becoming a parent is life-altering. Here on this site there is a ton of bad side of humanity discussed. There's a ton of good in humanity too, and I think most would intervene.

Hey man. I'm from Calgary too.

I just wanted to mention that I'm not a parent, but if I saw shit like this happening, I'm fairly certain I would do absolutely everything required to save the kid. Including doing 160 the wrong way up the Deerfoot if it came to it. I don't think you've got to be a parent to hate seeing kids hurt, and wanting to harm those that would do the hurting. If anything, not being a parent means you have less outside yourself and your values to live for. Like you said, you've got your own kids to worry about.

I don't doubt that you and people like you would intervene. The're a lot of good people out there, and I guess the thing that counts is that it's just different when kids are involved.

[fattycakes]

I will mention that this very thing happened today. Although it did not happen to me.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44161568/ns ... kr5j4LSzmc

That is one lucky little girl.

This happened not to long ago. I live in Santa Fe which is about 50 miles away from where this happened. Its pretty scary and that girl was very lucky. It freaked us out because we have 2 daughters. Also, the guy who saved this little girl was an illegal immigrant. They were trying to deport him, and Im not sure whatever happened to him. I hope he didn't get deported because illegal or not, not many people have the presence of mind to do what he did.