Abduction Alert

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QRStuve
by QRStuve
21-Oct-2008
 

ABDUCTION ALERT is posted on the freeway signs. GREY CHRYSLER SUV LIC 1ABC234.

First of all, be afraid. Your child too might be abducted. What does that mean, abducted? Kidnapped? A stranger in a car with windows tinted dark rolls to a stop beside your seven year old daughter on her way home from school… Wait. Does your seven year old daughter actually walk home from school? Don’t you pick her up? You don’t trust people enough to actually let your kid walk to and from school, do you? Well, maybe you live in a small town where you know everybody and they know your children and watch over them like the sparrows in the field each morning and afternoon, (but if you do, what are you doing on a Southern California freeway?), so it is a real shock, a horror beyond imagining, when hands reach from the rear door and one covers your daughter’s mouth so she can’t scream and the other drags her by the neck into the car, the door closes and the car smoothly accelerates down main street and onto the road out of town; but your neighbors the birdwatchers have fortunately noted the license number and make, model, and color, so after only a mild hassle convincing the highway patrol that yes there has indeed been a kidnapping, or abduction, as trained officers of the law and experts in terrorism call it, the information is flashed statewide on the state’s freeway signs, even regionwide, we don’t know, we could call the highway patrol to ask how far the net is spread but don’t feel like concocting a story about writing a newspaper article so they won’t put a trace on our phone to determine the source of the security breach.

But the sign doesn’t say KIDNAPPING, does it. Those are rare. It says ABDUCTION. Some distraught or pissed-off spouse picked up the kid for an afternoon and didn’t return him, and the offended spouse called the cops and they don’t have anything better to put up on the signs, and it helps deliver the message: Be scared. Your kids too can be kidnapped any time. Shut up, obey the cops, and you’ll be safe.

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American Wife

Thanks Stuve's khanoon

by American Wife on Wed Oct 22, 2008 02:13 PM PDT

There are no limits to the lengths I will go when I am in full "mom alert".  Just a month or so ago I tried to call my son on his cell phone.  It was not working... I tried to text him... no response.  Called his Dad... he hadn't heard anything.  Waited a day or two.  Started calling again... left several messages (increasingly strident in nature...lol)... left MORE text messages.  Nothing.  By now I was hitting up strangers on the street for valium, prozac, anything that could remotely calm me down.  HA.  He's in PA in school and we're in southern CA.  3 hour difference/2400 miles away... oh yeah, thats great for the nerves.  Otherwise I would be on the road with my adult diapers and 20 bottles of water, enough nut n' honey nature bars to see me the whole way up without stopping.

It came down to this.  I called the SCHOOL.  I actually called his counselor and explained the deal to him.  He was absolutely the sweetest man alive.  He said that he gets these calls ALL the time.  Kids just get away and don't realize that we parents are prone to irrational panic attacks when we can't get ahold of our children... those bodies of flesh and blood that we carried in our wombs for 9 months... nurtured selflessly through the years... middle of the night bad dreams which we sssssshhhh'd away with total love and devotion.

He went to his class and explained that Mom was a little concerned.

The son... that.... that.... MAN CHILD... call me and guess what?  He was embarrassed and mad at me that I called the school.

The little shit.

:-)


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Don't feel bad, AW!

by Stuve's Iranian Wife (not verified) on Wed Oct 22, 2008 01:44 PM PDT

I have a bad case of maternal panic too. Not only that, I'm superstitous! I panic that just by making fun of abduction baloney God will punish us by having something bad happen to our son: "So you think abduction alert is bullshit? Take this..."

Guys, you know... They don't understand the finer points of motherhood.


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American Wife

Reader...

by American Wife on Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:48 AM PDT

apparently I did...lol.  So I got all maternal and panicky for nothing????  If I missed the point, then it appears I FELL for it.  In that case, you're right.  Sorry for the weeping...:-)


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AW, you missed it!

by Iranian Reader (not verified) on Tue Oct 21, 2008 07:26 PM PDT

But that's perhaps the point: "Abduction" has such frightening charge that we don't even register what's in front of us!

FREAK OUT, FOLKS, FREAK OUT! ABDUCTION. TERRORISTST. LOULOU KHORKHOREH. HANDS UP, DROP YOUR WEAPON. LAW AND ORDER IN CHARGE. GIVE IT UP FOR THE DECIDER. FEAR FEAR FEAR.

Now, you wouldn't fall for that unless they appeal to your absolute worst nightmare, would you?


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American Wife

harsh reality

by American Wife on Tue Oct 21, 2008 01:30 PM PDT

My heart was in my throat and my pulse started racing just READING your post.  My son is now 23 but the mere thought of his being in danger gives me a glimpse into the horror those parents must go through.  I swear, this is no joke.... I had a bad dream Friday night about my son and when I came out my husband asked me what was wrong and I burst into tears.  I just could not shake that awful feeling.  I called him immediately and demanded that he call me back.  My sister lost a son and even now, 10 years later, it's a physical pain.  One that lessens in time but never goes away.

Thank you for reminding us again how vulnerable our children are.


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