I am not surprised that a 7YO has the memory. When I play memory type games with my 2nd grader, she always wins.

Anyone else find it hard to believe that a 7-year would have the memory, let alone presence is mind, to provide such a detailed description of this alleged individual?

But stay vigilant everyone because kidnappings are a common occurrence around here every 30 or 40 years.

Anonymous wrote:A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

Yes. Let's not let them do anything their entire childhoods because of one RARE possible incident (which in fact the kids handled well and appropriately).

Anonymous wrote:A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

Why? The kids obviously knew what to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

+1 depending on the age of the other child, someone should have been supervising them. Glad they are ok.

She said they were playing outside their house. Not at a park nearby.

Yup, where I live, everyone lets their kids play on front lawns and sidewalks, most are allowed to cross the street to go on the opposite sidewalk and lawns. Unsupervised. So this IS scary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

+1 depending on the age of the other child, someone should have been supervising them. Glad they are ok.

She said they were playing outside their house. Not at a park nearby.

Anonymous wrote:A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

+1 depending on the age of the other child, someone should have been supervising them. Glad they are ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, that's not Upper NW as in DC - it's Montgomery County, MD, Chevy Chase/Silver Spring (as in technically CCMD but closer to SS.) I live nearby and the kids go to our kids' school (or at least they posted on our school list serv.) It's pretty frightening.

Western Ave is upper NW

Sounds like the second incident at the bus stop was on Western nearer to upper NW. Very scary.

Anonymous wrote:FYI, that's not Upper NW as in DC - it's Montgomery County, MD, Chevy Chase/Silver Spring (as in technically CCMD but closer to SS.) I live nearby and the kids go to our kids' school (or at least they posted on our school list serv.) It's pretty frightening.

Western Ave is upper NW

A very good reason for not letting children that age be off at a park by themselves. So glad they were quick-thinking and lived close by.

FYI, that's not Upper NW as in DC - it's Montgomery County, MD, Chevy Chase/Silver Spring (as in technically CCMD but closer to SS.) I live nearby and the kids go to our kids' school (or at least they posted on our school list serv.) It's pretty frightening.

Thank you, OP, for sharing this. This sort of thing is so important to get out there. And for all of us to keep our eyes open for potential dangers of all sorts.

And congratulations to that 7 year old and his sibling!

Ugh. Scary. Thanks for posting, OP.

From neighborhood listservs.

There was a potential kidnapping in the Rock Creek Forest neighborhood this morning. See description of incident below:

I wanted to share a very scary incident that happened to us this morning. My two boys were playing outside our house on Colston Drive and a man asked them if he could give them ride to school. My son, 7, said no and told him he takes the bus, and so the man said to him, “I can give you a ride. Just tell me where you go to school.”

My kids ran into the house and we’ve called the police, who arrived soon after. My 7 year old described the car as a bluish-green hatchback—similar to a Mazda 5, which he knows—and the man inside as in his 50s-60s, with darkish skin, grey hair, an accent, and wearing a baseball cap.

One of our CCBC parents just received this from her neighborhood list serve and she realized she encountered a man fitting this description this morning near the bus stop on Western Avenue. He was trying to talk to her daughters about schools nearby.