Sometimes you don’t know the risks that are out there. While you may be a proud parent who wants nothing more than to show off your baby, you need to be careful not to assume that everyone is as well-intentioned as you.
Rachel Young, a mother in Kansas, learned this the hard way when a stranger tried to walk off with her baby in Target. She didn’t see it coming.
At first, she thought it was a joke.
It started with a compliment between strangers.
Rachel told the woman that her dog was cute, and in return, the woman commented about how cute her baby was.
The mom told WDAF-TV what happened next:
“She made a comment saying, yeah, I’ll trade you my dog for your baby, and I thought she was just joking.”
They ended up having a prolonged and friendly conversation, but then it got weird.
Despite their initially friendly conversation, the strange woman started to take things too far.
Rachel knew she had made a mistake trusting this stranger when this happened:
“She just was super, super nice. And she went to the front of my cart and asked me if she could hold my daughter. Then she starts taking her out of the car seat, and she hands me her dog…
While she’s holding my baby, she started saying weird things. She starts asking me, ‘Do you have a godmother?’
I said no, and she said, ‘I’d love to be your godmother, I’ll split everything 50/50,’ and I was like, this is kind of weird, like, who says this to a random person?”
Before Rachel could wrap her head around what was going on, something truly scary happened next.
While the stranger continued to hold on to Rachel’s baby, she started saying even more threatening things.
Rachel started to really panic but was frozen in fear as the women held her baby. Rachel says:
“She says, ‘Just so you know, I was arrested for attempted kidnapping.’ That’s when I was like, okay, you know what, there’s something wrong.
All of a sudden, starts walking off with my daughter. I yelled to her, I said, ‘I need my baby back, please. give me my baby back.’”
Rachel had to be forceful to get the stranger to return the baby to her, but eventually, it happened. It never should have been this difficult.
When Rachel yelled in the store, the woman hesitated. She eventually returned the baby, but it took way too much effort on Rachel’s part.
When Rachel finally held the baby back in her arms, she asked employees to call the police.
Rachel was horrified and infuriated to discover that the police couldn’t do much to help.
Although they arrived at the scene, they said that the woman technically hadn’t done anything wrong because Rachel had given her permission to hold her baby.
The most that the police could do was investigate the woman and the situation.
This experience galvanized Rachel to warn other mothers.
Rachel considers herself naturally trusting and willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
While that can be a strength, in this instance, it backfired.
For Rachel, this was a moment that made her want to take a stand and let other mothers know the risks that can lie out there.
Watch the video below to hear Rachel’s story and warning in her own words!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
