Me [mentally clutching heart]: And you kept biking, right?
Her: And I said I wasn't from Czechoslovakia...
Me: And then you biked away!
Her: No-o-o-o. And then he said, "Well, you look very pretty anyway." Isn't that neat?
Me: And? And?
Her: Then he got back in his truck and drove away.
Me:
Her: He was very nice!
Yes, most serial killers are, aren't they?
And no, she's not biking alone again. Ever.
My high school home room teacher told me I had nice legs and a$$. Yet I still had to go to school every day....
ReplyDeleteOh dear.
ReplyDeleteYikes!!!! how scary for you! I am glad everything was okay!
ReplyDeleteOh Holy Crap.
ReplyDeleteAnd my parents ask why Daughter doesn't "just go to the park by herself"?
ReplyDeleteAfter all, those stories about creeps in white vans (red trucks) are just stories...right?
That is so NOT neat!
Heart out to you Mom.
Ohhhhh, that's scary. I think I won't be able to let my (5 yo) daughter go anywhere alone when she's older because she too thinks she can talk to everyone.
ReplyDeletethat is so scary. did you report ? it can not hurt for the cops to know this happened....
ReplyDeleteUm, yikes!! My daughter, who is 6, is extremely shy and won't talk to anyone she doesn't know really, REALLY well. However, today, the mall Santa was able to coax her onto his lap by offering her a candy cane... That bothered me a bit.
ReplyDeleteOH MY LORD!!!!
ReplyDeleteI would have flipped out!
I bet that instantly caused more gray hair-or at least it would have for me!
Any well-intentioned man knows better than to pull over to talk to a young unaccompanied girl. I think you should report this.
ReplyDeleteI think it's time for an education on street smarts. And maybe some role-playing.
ReplyDeleteMy kids have a fair amount of freedom for things like going places on their own, but we've talked about it forever.
When I think about clipping their wings I always count back from 18 and think how many years I have left to teach them to take care of themselves.
WOW! I may have had a stroke right about the time she said he stopped and asked a question. Scary.
ReplyDeleteI was, if memory serves, 10 or 11. The guy drove up and stopped, which was weird enough on that often-busy road, and went from asking for directions (and clearly wanting me to shut up while I tried to tell him how to get to that street) to trying to talk me into getting into his car and then choosing to try force to get me to comply as I was looking for help. Another car just then came up from the blind patch in the road back there and pulled up behind him--double yellow line, can't go around. So suddenly there was a witness as I started running, and the guy floored it hard, cursing, and squealed away.
ReplyDeleteI was terrified for a long time afterwards. And it never occurred to me to tell my parents.
Oh. my. god. Got back in his truck. I'd feel slightly better if he had stayed there.
ReplyDelete(Is it time for pepper spray in her purse now? And Feener's right - can't hurt to let the police know)
Did you call the cops?
ReplyDeleteKeep her away from batons!
ReplyDeleteThat is completely terrifying. I hear closets are good to live in.
ReplyDeleteOh scary. Scary. Of course I just watched 20/20 which always ups my paranoia level, but SCARY nonetheless.
ReplyDeletefreaks. me. out.
ReplyDeleteThat's scary!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Suzanne, you should report this.
This summer, my daughter and son were rollerblading on the sidewalk just a few houses away from ours and a group of teenage boys walked by and one of them called my 10 year old daughter by name and asked her if she could "come over to his house at 10:00 tonight" She had no idea who they were.
Oh. No. That must have stopped your heart. Thank goodness something changed his mind. Suzanne is right, he did not have good intentions!
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way. What if you DON'T report it and a neighbor girl goes missing?
ReplyDeletePlease tell me you reported that to the police! It was probably just some nice old guy, but... Nah.. it was a perv! Go call the cops. NOW! Scary!
ReplyDeleteI have palpatations for you.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for calling the police. It'll also reinforce the seriousness to your daughter.
While I'm all for being cautious about strangers (I have a teenage daugher myself)and I agree that this little episode is, happily, a benign reminder of how we need to teach our children to be very careful, the guy in the pick up truck did nothing illegal. He didn't even really do anything threatening (unless you think his attempt to talk to her was threatening).
ReplyDeleteMaybe because I know the parties involved here, I can imagine a guy seeing Anna, who is an extremely attractive young woman and looks older than her 15 years, and on impulse pulling over in an attempt to meet her. But upon talking to her realized she was much younger than he first thought so he got back in his truck. I think he was just trying to talk to a pretty lady!
Come on ladies, think back to when you were younger. Didn't guys ever make supremely clumsy attempts to talk to meet you?
Of course, in light of all the creepy horror stories we hear in the media, it behooves us to be very careful, but I do think most of the time it turns out to be just another case of boy trying to meet girl.
Why mothers turn grey. As a formerly-naive survivor of what used to be called the Fate Worse than Death, I vote for telling the cops.
ReplyDeleteBejesus that's scary! Hope she got a nice long explanation of how LUCKY she was!
ReplyDeleteSomething similar happened to daughter in September, I wrote about it here: http://whateverkaty.blogspot.com/2008/09/very-scary.html
ReplyDeleteShe's not walking/biking alone anymore either.
So are you reviewing the rules of reality for her now? My boys are the same way, totally trusting of everyone. It's very scary.
So, so scary.
ReplyDeleteI will say, too, that the line of conversation is very trippy: "Well, you look very pretty anyway". . .when he found out she was Czechoslovakian?! Um, ok.
I don't want my kids to be afraid of everyone, but stories like this make my heart race. I think it's about time I taught my girls to fight like cats should anyone try to grab them.
OMG, OMG, OMG.....OMG!
ReplyDeleteBoarding school definitely!
That is so freakin' scary. My heart seized just reading it.
ReplyDeleteUh, creepy!!! And my husband actually did some work on the apartment Ted Bundy once lived in. He thinks he's so brave now.:)
ReplyDeleteMy daughters are 6, 4, and 2. We are ready for the convent NOW. They can get out...when they are 35.
ReplyDeleteThat's a little funny that he asked such a specific kind of question...
ReplyDeleteZOMG that is HORRIBLE! Czechoslovakia isn't even a country anymore! Where has this guy been for the last fifteen years?
ReplyDelete(Also, tiny maternal heart attack. Eek. I think I'll go hug my children and hyperventilate for awhile.)
That is so random. Why does your daughter look like a Czech girl? No, I'm not even trying to spell the whole word. Good on you for getting it right, tho.
ReplyDeleteangelawd: the writer gets the last word
Ok, thanks for scaring me into keeping my children on a literal leash for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is scary. (But do you think we get more worked up about this stuff because of all the news media surrounding kids and abduction? According to reports, those numbers are actually down, but there is more attention surrounding them.)
ReplyDeleteEither way, I'm with you. I am such a worrier that I'd be telling her to ride her bike in the basement forever.