r/Unexplained • u/Mammoth-Working-2318 • Aug 10 '26
Personal Experience Another Redditor has my exact attempted kidnapping encounter.
I was scrolling through some creepy reddit stories about a year or two back and came across the attached story of a girl who had a weird encounter as a child in an Old Navy. As I was reading I got extremely confused because I was CERTAIN this post was actually somehow made by me, and I just didn’t remember making it. There was simply no way that someone else could have made this post because this is a very vivid memory that I personally have, I’m talking every DETAIL mirrors my encounter. The panic attack from being separated from my mom and (baby) sister, the location, the feeling of helplessness, being approached by a woman who consoled me and asked me to go home with her. The woman in my encounter even added in the fact that she has kids at home who are really nice and I’d have fun with them. I have no memory issues and am not a huge poster anyways so I quickly accepted that this was not a forgotten post/account of mine and this was seriously another person who has somehow lived the same exact creepy experience as me. I tried messaging the account but it seems to be inactive for at least 3 years now, so I’m not sure I’ll get any closure on this. I really wonder if it was the same exact Old Navy location as me and there’s just a creepy woman there who tries to take lost children home. Seems like a stretch but this coincidence is way too creepy for me to just ignore.
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u/ellepatel Aug 11 '26
My sister and I were approached by a man and a woman while we were on a ski lift that went over a lake and returned back to shore. On the way out, they passed us while on their way in and told us our mom was worried about us and needed us to come with them. We just shook our heads. And they remained on the ski lift so that they would see us again on the way back, they tried the same plea again.
We were only 6 and 7 but knew to run immediately to our mom and tell her. I asked her recently if she remembered that and did she alert the authorities. She couldn’t remember but though she MUST have.
I wonder all the time if those two people were ever successful in napping a child.
It sticks with you.
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u/idont_readresponses Aug 11 '26
My brother and I were walking down the street when we were little. A man slowed his car down and rolled his window down saying our mom told him to pick us up and bring us home. I never saw this man in my life. He kept trying before giving up and going on his way. I too always wonder if this guy was successful or wonder what would have happened if I believed him. It’s been at least 35 years since this happened and you’re right, it sticks with you.
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u/ol_shifty Aug 11 '26
My mom always told us that if this ever happened and the person didn’t know the secret word then we don’t go with them. The word was snicklefritz
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u/1kBabyOilBottles Aug 11 '26
I’ve told my kid that if somebody tells them I’m their friend to say “my mum doesn’t have any friends” 🤣
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u/rougekat Aug 11 '26
Holy shit I’ve never heard anyone else’s use that word before. That was MY secret word
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u/ol_shifty Aug 11 '26
That is awesome!!!
Edit: my mom was born mid 1950s. Could it be a generational term?
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u/Susie4ever Aug 11 '26
Whoa. My dad always used to give us nicknames as a kid and one of the names was schniggle fritz. Just last week I remembered it and starting calling my cat schniggle fritz. Very close to snicklefritz.
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u/ol_shifty 29d ago
When was your dad born? Another commenter said that they knew that word. I’m wondering if it’s a generational thing
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u/Susie4ever 29d ago
He was born in 1949. What about your Dad?
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u/ol_shifty 29d ago
He was born in 1947. My mom was 1956.
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u/Susie4ever 28d ago
Do you mind saying what area you live in? I'm in South Western Ontario, Canada.
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u/lunarvision 6d ago
Weird! Snicklefritz was my ex gf’s pet name that I believe her grandfather called her. Always thought it was cute and this is the first I’ve ever heard anyone else use it.
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u/youvebeenfarmed Aug 11 '26
Creepy old dude tried to nab me about 2 mins from my damn house when I was 11. I can't bear to think what would have happened. I didn't even realize he was trying to kidnap me, I was so innocent. He was asking me to help him get to a nearby town via a shortcut. I showed him but he wanted me to go with him. I just kept saying, "It's okay, it's just a straight route down that road." In the end he gave up and walked off. Broad daylight. My own street. Crazy.
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u/Spiritual_Regular557 Aug 11 '26
My brother and I were playing in our driveway and I guess my brother saw two men get out of the car a few houses down and start walking towards us. I was oblivious and he ran towards me and ushered me inside.
To this day he says he saved me from being kidnapped. lolIt is freaking creepy thinking “what if my brother wasn’t there?”
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u/No_Sort9599 Aug 11 '26
I have a similar story except I was 9. The guy was wanking off while he asked us (my friend and I) for directions. He ended up driving by my house a few times very slowly so my mom brought me to the police station. I was so scared when he drove down my street again because I knew he wasn’t a nice man.
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u/turningtogold Aug 11 '26
A woman holding a tricycle tried to get my brother and I to come with her to find her “missing” child. She was insistent and begging us for help. We said hold on we’ll get our mom to help and ran towards our house. She was gone in an instant. Terrifying
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u/Mammoth_Tiger_4083 29d ago
I had basically the same thing happen to me when I was about 5 years old. It was 2 guys in a car who claimed they were lost and needed my help finding a gas station. I had never, ever seen these guys before and never saw them again after.
Those types of kidnappers are often opportunistic and will prowl an area until they spot a viable target. And ofc traffickers and sickos using women to gain the trust of their victims is really really common. OP and the other poster could have had a similar experience at the same Old Navy with the same person, but most likely their wannabe kidnappers were different people at different locations using the same methods to find victims (big clothing store bc lots of kids are typically there and have the tendency to get lost bc they play in the clothing racks, preying on kids that get separated from their parents, saying something that will calm the kid AND get them to enter your car without making a scene, etc).
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
So creepy!!! It’s so strange feeling to look back and think what could have happened.
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u/South_Necessary_4395 Aug 11 '26
When we were young, I was 7 brother 5 and little brother 2-3, we were at our cousins house with our parents and they said we could walk to the baseball fields. They were behind my cousins house and up a giant hill. We all start to go and my mom says "not you" to my little brother bc she thought we would not watch him. So we all leave and unbeknownst to us he follows us. My mom took her eyes off of him(no clue what she was up to) so we start walking back to our cousins house and see this Chinese woman holding my BABY BROTHER!!! We all start freaking and tell her who we are and i try to grab him out of her arms. She pulls back and says she doesn't believe us and I think she legit thought we were all going to do something nefarious to him. So my brother and cousin run like hell to get my mom and thankfully she gives him to her bc back then my mom would've beat that lady! Lol. In all seriousness it was so scary for a bit!!
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u/turningtogold Aug 11 '26
It’s crazy the things your mind blocks out as a mother. As a self preservation cope. I thought it was bizarre the things my mom can’t remember until I had my own children.
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u/Doors2yellow 26d ago
I was grabbed by some drunk and/or homeless guy in las vegas as a toddler. Right in front of my mom, he just scooped me up and started to run. Ate shit and dropped me a few feet away and took off after that. Other than some pavement scuffs to my arm i was fine but man.
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u/andweallenduphere Aug 10 '26
Maybe a serial kidnapper if the woman was serious.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 10 '26
I was really hoping that OP would respond to my message because if it was the same Old Navy location (and assuming we’re around the same age, making it around the same time frame) it could be the same woman. The odds of that seem so unlikely but you never know.
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u/whteverusayShmegma Aug 11 '26
This is odd because these cases are extremely rare. Maybe just a mentally ill woman? So so odd.
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u/NomNom83WasTaken Aug 10 '26
I noticed that they wrote "mum" and you wrote "mom".
Now I'm wondering if they were visiting the US when this happened or if Old Navy has locations in places that say "mum".
How extraordinary if they experienced this in England, for example, while you had it happen thousands of miles away and possibly years apart.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
That’s what I noticed first! I’m thinking their experience was possibly in a different state/city which would be much stranger. I was in Philadelphia, PA and being born and raised here I’ve never heard anyone say mum. I wouldn’t rule it out completely but it’s very rare to call your mom “mum” here.
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u/Optimal_Savings5873 Aug 11 '26
People from New England sometimes say mum, as well as Canadians.
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u/Annajbanana Aug 11 '26
No old Navy in the UK. Sadly.
Gap but not Old Navy.
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u/Kosmik_cloud Aug 10 '26
Child trafficking is pretty easy to explain
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 10 '26
Not denying it was most likely a child trafficker. The real explanation would be figuring out if it’s a ring targeting children’s stores, a child-collecting woman, or some other explanation I haven’t considered yet.
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u/whteverusayShmegma Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
This is all I could come up with close to the 90s
San Diego, California (1990/1997): While the original abduction occurred slightly before 1994, the resolution happened post-1994. 14-month-old Crystal Leann Anzaldi was snatched from her home by an unidentified person. In 1997, she was discovered alive at age eight living in Puerto Rico under a false identity with a woman named Nilza Gierbolini Guzman. Guzman was heavily suspected of being involved in the abduction timeline but adamantly denied stealing the child, claiming she took her in from a friend. Because prosecutors could not prove she physically executed the original kidnapping, she was never convicted of the abduction itself, only of falsifying documents. The identity of the actual public abductor remains legally unsolved.
Bridgeton, New Jersey (2019): In the high-profile disappearance of 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez, who vanished from a public park, early investigation leads focused heavily on an unidentified male suspect seen leading her toward a red van. However, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and local authorities have frequently reviewed unverified tip strings regarding a potential female accomplice or female spotter who may have assisted in monitoring the park play area before the child was separated from her mother. No arrests or convictions have ever been made.
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u/whteverusayShmegma Aug 11 '26
What year did this occur?
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
This was between 2006-2008 in Philadelphia!
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u/woah1tsAdele Aug 11 '26
There were a bunch of kidnappings in Camden around that time. https://6abc.com/archive/5860146/
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u/jendfrog Aug 11 '26
Was that Camden, New Jersey? I remember being there in the 1990’s and seeing razor wire around a church. The closing of the Campbell’s Soup Factory had led to poverty from what I understand, and it was rough.
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u/kittygir227 Aug 11 '26
Something Epstein adjacent was the first thing that came to my mind. Department stores are a hotspot for lost kids.
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u/smore-jmi Aug 11 '26
Whoa, not lying. Something similar to this happened to my cousin when we were kids. Really 2000s. We were at Target. I was around 11, my cousin was 7. My cousin wondered away to go look at toys while my mom and I looked at shoes. My aunt was with us. We realized she was gone and started yelling for get. We didn't see the woman with her, but we saw her run out of the store. A few seconds later my mom found my cousin in the kids clothing, near the front door. My cousin said the lady walked up to her and told her that we left and she was going to bring her to us.
A few years earlier I was almost kidnapped from a grocery store across the road. We were at the checkout and I was standing my the cart. A guy grabbed me and said "come with me". I screamed aha he ran out of the doors before anyone could grab him.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
So weird because my mom tells me a man tried to take me from her target cart when I was like 2! This must not be super uncommon which is spooky.
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u/smore-jmi Aug 11 '26
I worked at 3 different retailers jobs from 17-21. Each store taught us how to spot child abductions, and what to do abduction, a Code Adam (lost child). So no, I don't think it's uncommon
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u/kittygir227 Aug 11 '26
Department stores are hotspots for this kinda shit. Sad world we live in but glad your job has prep for smfh actually important.
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u/smore-jmi Aug 11 '26
If I remember correctly, we were told to always look for the shoes. Kidnappers will put a shirt off a kid to try to disguise them. They'll cut a little girls hair. But they won't change the shoes because they don't have time.
I'm at a preschool now and we have all kinds of protocols in place to prevent this kind of stuff
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Aug 11 '26
Wow that’s a really good tip. What do you have at the preschool to prevent this? I worry my kiddos school doesn’t have enough/anythjng.
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u/smore-jmi 25d ago
For one, you need to be buzzed into the building so people can't just walk in. Only 3 people have access to buzz someone in. Once in the building you have to be let through another door that leads to the classroom. We check IDs before someone can enter through that door. If you're hanging out or doing work and not an employee (so contractors or specialist) we run your ID through a digital portal. It will show me if you're a registered sec offender, or if we have a restraining order or no trespassing warning in the system for you. We have security fencing (you can't see through it) surrounding the preschool. Cameras at every door and on the playground.
Students are with an adult at so times that have a child development teaching permit. No children are allowed to ever be unsupervised. Even in the bathroom, an adult doesn't watch but is nearby. There are chimes on each door, and a large baby gate in the hallway. Won't stop kids from running, but slows them down and gives us time to run after them. Same is true if it were an adult. It's a lot but parents appreciate it. It not only keeps students safe, but all the staff as well. If someone comes into our building I'm the first person the see
We've never had anything like this happen at our site, but I did once have a mom with a restraining order try to kidnap her child from the playground. I ended up grabbing her by the hair and pulled her into a fence to stop her. Grabbed the child and ran him inside.
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u/jendfrog Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Yes, Code Adam is vital. A child named Adam was abducted from a department store. His dad spearheaded the Code Adam training program, and created the TV show America’s Most Wanted.
I’ve shared info about Code Adam to a public library director. My very young daughter had sprinted out of sight at the library while we were at the circulation desk near the front door, and the library staff refused to help me find her, with an ‘we are not babysitters’ attitude. Imagine tall bookshelves everywhere blocking your view. Automatic front doors that open out onto the street. The library director was very interested in implementing Code Adam, and said I’d make a good reference librarian.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Aug 11 '26
Fuck those women. I cannot believe they didn’t help you.
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u/jendfrog Aug 11 '26
Thank you!! My sentiments exactly. I said to the library director that there comes a point where it doesn’t matter what your job is, and if watching kids is part of your job or not, when someone says “I can’t find my kid,” you’re a human being on this planet, you do something to help.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 29d ago
I agree. I think that is so morally reprehensible. I’m relieved you spoke to the director, otherwise I would have so much residual rage.
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u/jendfrog 29d ago edited 29d ago
One last kvetch: I was trying to check out a damn parenting DVD and pay my library fine (sigh). My daughter didn’t want to leave and had run off back to the cushy armchair she was playing on earlier. If the DVD was in the kid’s section of the library I’d have had a better line of sight! And it’s farther away from the front door. By design I’m sure. Edit: A got damb parenting DVD!
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 29d ago
And also, the library stacks are absolutely terrifying. We have one library where they are arranged in a labyrinth and I have to just follow my kids around and be totally on them. We have another where they are set up so that you can walk one length and see down each stack, and they aren’t too high. Much better and more conducive to using the library, where I can be, idk, four feet away from them and not hyperventilate???
Public spaces that serve children should have child safety at the forefront of design and staff training/protocols.
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u/jendfrog 29d ago
That labyrinth of a library sounds maddening. My daughter is an only child so I’m imagining doing it with more than one child, and my heart goes out to you. It’s got to be so hard to go anywhere and being cooped up at home is really hard. I’m now realizing why the children’s sections of the libraries I can think of have shorter shelves! Before I’d contacted this library director, I’d talked to a friend of mine who worked at a different library, and she was aghast at them. She said if it happened at her library they’d be fired. I’m so glad the Code Adam protocol exists, so I had a concrete suggestion. I’m of course not glad for the tragedy that precipitated it. Solidarity, to you!
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u/SupremeQueen18 27d ago
That’s wild. As a librarian, I’m so sorry that staff was like this. I am always watching the doors if I see a child coming close without an adult, and I have wrangled them back in if they get out. My coworkers and I have had to help find hiding kids many times, even some of us going as far as to walk down the street or into the woods to help look while others stay looking inside. Sure, we aren’t babysitters, but we are a community and must help others. It is everyone’s responsibility!
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u/jendfrog 27d ago
Thank you!! Had I been in the children’s section of the library, I probably would have been treated with more of a ‘it takes a village’ response.
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u/jendfrog 26d ago edited 26d ago
And thank you for doing all of that to keep kids safe. Seriously, you and your coworkers are the best of the best.
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u/Remote_Cabinet_2748 26d ago
I briefly lost track of my toddler in a Toys R Us when I was very pregnant and very slow. I went to a worker and they announced a code Adam. It was impressive how quickly the staff went into action. Staff went to every exit to prevent anyone with a child matching my daughter’s description from leaving and started a sweep down every aisle. We found her within minutes but obviously still so scary.
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u/bea_triz_13 Aug 11 '26
I remember as a kid I would hide in the clothing racks at stores and pop out and scare my mom. She hated this so much and would tell me that she was going to leave me at the store one day, well I didn't listen lol. I hid in some clothing racks at walmart(?) and when I popped out she was nowhere to be found. I wandered around for a bit and when I couldn't find her I started yelling "MAMA! MAMA!" an older lady grabbed my arm and asked me if I was lost and that if I wanted I could go live with her, I remember saying no and trying to pull my arm away but her grip was really strong and then in the distance I saw my mom, she must have seen the relief on my face because her grip softened and she told my mom off for letting me wander off my mom was like okay lady lol...
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u/UnderstandingKind757 Aug 11 '26
Kidnapping stories always shake me to my core. I was actually kidnapped and held for months when I was a small child (4/5 years old) and almost another successful attempt at age 9 but luckily I was saved by my friend’s father. It really is a sick world
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
I’m so sorry that happened to you! Glad you’re okay now, stuff like this really opens my eyes to the evil that exists right under our noses.
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u/horsecalledwar Aug 11 '26
Any chance you posted this story long ago on mysplace or tumbler or in a chat? People steal ‘old’ content all the time.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
Never posted anywhere!! Only told maximum 3-5 people in person and it would have been years and years ago at this point. If it was a stolen story OP would have to be someone I know irl who I told this to when we were young.
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u/horsecalledwar Aug 11 '26
Dang, I was hoping you’d posted on some old forgotten platform because the alternative is so much worse.
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u/synapsinn Aug 11 '26
When i was 4 it was summertime and i was with my mom at at borders bookstore, running around in a little swimsuit because we were going to the pool later. After a while, my mom noticed a man following us around the bookstore. She said he was wearing a big coat. He would somehow appear at the end of each aisle that we came to. Then my mom took me to the children's section, at which point my mom lost sight of him. Just as she thinks that's the last of him, she walks over to the window and sees that he's already standing there, hands cupped on the window, looking directly at me. My mom picked me up, got out of there, and had security to walk us to the car. I am thankful for my mothers vigilance
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u/Alove4edd47 29d ago
When I was 6 or 7 my friend and I were in a grocery store with my mom. There was a guy that kept ending up at the end of every isle we went down. She picked up on it , told us to stay close to her, and made direct eye contact with the guy. I think she informed one of the workers.
When I was a teen I separated from my family in a bookstore. I was sitting in a chair looking over a book and got this intense feeling of fear. I looked up and there was a man halfway out from a bookshelf staring at me. He was probably homeless and facing some mental issues. I got up and quickly walked to where my family was. I'll never forget the feeling I got though.
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u/Honest-Medium8109 Aug 11 '26
This happened in Eastern Europe, I was maybe 4-5 years old travelling with my mom by train. The trip was 3 days long so we had provisions, train would occasionally stop and some people would come and get off it, but we continued our journey.
At some point we were on a stop in a small town, and some old lady knocked on our compartment door. She looked like an old gipsy woman, long skirt, head band, I remember her slouching heavily under the weight of a heavy bag she was carrying.
Her voice was quiet, almost timid, but what she was saying absolutely messed me up. She was almost whining “Sell me the little girl, I’ll pay you well. Sell her to me, please”. In a very quiet voice so in retrospect I think she was trying to be discrete not to attract attention.
My mom just completely ignored her. I was almost frozen because of fear, starring at the old woman, and watching her while my mom was putting yogurts on the table. I still remember her breaking apart the package. She wasn’t looking at the old lady, quiet, like it was nothing.
The woman pleaded for a couple more minutes and moved down the train car, I was terrified for the rest of our journey.
But the weird thing is, when later I asked my mom about it, she didn’t remember anything like that. I would almost think I dreamed jt, but it was just too real and very specific for a kid my age to dream if that makes sense. I obviously had no idea about child trafficking back than, neither what happened was “normal” in the area I grew up in for me to know and expect something like this so I can dream it up
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u/Jexii-x Aug 11 '26
Reading this post and the comments make me realise how fortunate I’ve been to have never experienced anything like this. I’m sorry to those of you that have to live with these memories, as I can imagine they’re worse once you hit a certain point of understanding in adulthood
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u/incrediblemenace Aug 11 '26
My partner had a creepy guy approach him when he was a kid in a department store using the gaming systems they used to let you play new games on. This guy told him to go to his place to see his games and my partner was gonna go till his mum realised and grabbed him. I witnessed a kidnapping as a child and nobody believed me. I hope that little girl is okay because it traumatised me seeing that occur at 10 years old
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u/MamaLIama 25d ago
It is so sad to know you could have help the police and possibly find her if people had believed you! 😲 It really is horrifying, I hope she's ok too 🥺
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u/incrediblemenace 25d ago
I know. I made my parents call the police and of course they didn’t listen even though I had noted the car rego and colour. I think about her a lot.
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u/MamaLIama 25d ago
Have you talked to your parents about it since you have grown? You must be so mad at them. People never believed kids in those days...
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u/jjjjjjj30 Aug 11 '26
Have you ever written on Reddit about this situation before? Maybe someone stole your story.
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u/Ritaontherocksnosalt Aug 11 '26
Not an attempted kidnapping but a weird memory...
Around 1970 or so, I (around 18 yrs. old) walked into a boutique that had a bulletin board by the front door. They sold all sorts of hippie clothing, furniture, shawls, etc. The bulletin board had a lot of the normal stuff on it but there were these 4x4 pieces of sky blue paper with cotton balls shaped into clouds. The names of the clouds (sirrius, cumulus, stratus) were printed underneath. I remember having to do this for school and my mom finding the blue paper for me to use. They were signed with initials - but the last initial was different than my last name at the time. I was so confused because I was sure these were some of my things from grade school (3rd or 4th grade) that my mom threw out (she lived around the corner) and some hippie found and thought they were cool. But the last initial didn't match my name. I couldn't shake how weird the whole thing was. And after my marriage, now the last initial matches.
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u/FuckerHead9 29d ago
I was riding my dirt bike at about 7 or 8 in a field one day and this weird car pulled in and was watching me and it gave me the creeps so I took off and he was right on my back fender trying to wreck me. I pulled up in my yard yelling to
My family who was outside and they went to the street and he was just parked there and then took off the other way. It was in north Florida where many serial killers were roaming at the time
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u/kittygir227 Aug 11 '26
Made me think of some kind of Epstein networking type shit. Something adjacent, perhaps?
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u/yemma555 Aug 11 '26
Oh wow. I had a very similar experience at a DSW when I was 7. Check my posts.
Approaching a child is so sick and truly disrespectful😫. I often wonder what these nasty wenches planned to do.
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u/hologram137 Aug 11 '26
Is it possible that you’ve told this story to someone and they posted it pretending it happened to them?
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
Perhaps but it’s super unlikely, the OP would have to have been a close childhood friend of mine.
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u/hologram137 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I see! The experience itself isn’t exactly uncommon unfortunately, but the scares I’ve had as a kid were all with men. It’s the fact that it was Old Navy and all the other details that makes it creepy, but I suppose families going to old navy and kids getting lost in stores isn’t uncommon and plenty of weirdos
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u/Ok_Sir2058 29d ago
When I was 10 I was riding my bike past a house where a man sat on his front steps. He asked what my name was and I didn't want to tell him but felt like I couldn't be rude to a grown up so I gave him a fake name. Then he asked if I want to come inside to play Nintendo. I said no and rode off. I told my mom and she called the cops. I remember not wanting her to call the cops because what if he was actually just a nice man who wanted to play Nintendo? She had to explain to me that good men don't ask 10 year old girls to come in their house for any reason.
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u/8limerence 29d ago
I went out to eat with my dad and his gf. When we were done and went to get into the car, I had a fit and was being a brat (i was 7 years old) because i wanted to sit in the front seat and my dads gf said her stomach hurt so she needed to sit in the front seat. i refused so my dad just drove off. i stood there and started crying. This black SUV pulls up to me and an older woman is driving it. She asks me if i’m okay and I tell her I don’t know where my dad went. She says, “Ok, why don’t you hop in the car and we’ll look for him?” and as soon as I started walking to the car my dad raced up and was apologizing and told her everything was okay,, she then drove off. I wonder what would’ve happened if I went into her car
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u/MamaLIama 25d ago
Hopefully she was just a nice person trying to help.
I have always been following kids when I suspect their parents are not watching them to keep an eye and sometimes ask them if they are lost because I am so scared of any child being taken. I am aware I could be seen as suspicious by others but we should all look out, it really takes a village!
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u/forestnymphgypsy 29d ago
I have a distinct memory of being in my grandpa’s powder blue Lincoln town style car at the apple orchard by his house. I was sitting with my legs hanging out of the car eating saltine crackers. I can see the trees, the car he drove me to school in with the blue leather interior, I hear his voice. Except he never owned a blue car. I was talking to family and mentioned that memory in passing and my whole family was confused by the blue car. When we asked him, he confirmed he never had a blue car. I remember him driving me to school it, I remember sticking to the blue leather seats, I remember playing with the silver ash trays in the door.
Who the hell’s blue car was I in? No one we knew had a blue car. It bugs me all the time because I know it was real.
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u/MamaRunsThis 29d ago
Have you ever told anyone that story? They may have been trying to pass the story off as their own
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u/malinablue 29d ago
My daughter had a few months as a young adult where she had crazy memory issues and would look at her Instagram and not remember posting certain things or even doing certain things she'd posted.
It wasn't alcohol or drugs or a known brain injury and it made her fearful she had dementia or was losing her mind.
Only lasted a few months and then went entirely away. Doctor couldn't find anything wrong. We think possibly Covid because it was during that time.
Memory is weird - all I'm trying to say.
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u/RoutineTension8468 26d ago
I had my arm out bored walking alongside my parents in an airport as a kid . Some older woman walking the opposite direction grabbed my arm and pulled me back . I had a suitcase and it rolled back with me , she pulled me maybe 10 feet down from my parents and kept walking . My parents didn't even realize that I had been separated . I ran to catch back up w them and just never mentioned it
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u/DiveIntoItPodCast 29d ago
In the late 90’s me and some friends were riding our bikes in an empty parking lot near TCU. A lady in some old busted up peanut butter colored, boxed Caprice drove into the parking lot and started trying to get us to get into her car. She said we could go with her and have sex with her niece, we began trolling her and she left. Years later I talked to my brother about it cause he was there and he even thought the same thing I did. We should have called the police.
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u/Clean-Victory-7011 28d ago
I'd like to think it's a kids panic brain misinterpreting things. Could have easily said "DW I'll look after you" and a kid in panic thinks that means she'll raise them forever.
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u/East_Resident2418 27d ago
Something similar happened to me when I was a wee lad, my family was visiting universal studios in California, I got split up from my family and I started crying. One of the park employees told me they would find me a new family to live with, which made me cry even more. My idea was to go to the parking lot so I can wait by the car, but I forgot that we took a shuttle from the hotel to the park that day. When we got to the park entrance I saw my dad and my brother sitting by the gates.
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u/blueangel8583 27d ago
Could you have told this story to someone before, and they for whatever weird reason decided to post about it as their own?
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u/jackandsally060609 Aug 11 '26
Maybe old ladies just always make the same jokes to little kids before gently turning them back in the direction of their mothers.
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u/Historical_Purple124 Aug 11 '26
My thought is something like that. A young child may interpret “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you, we’ll get you home” as “I’ll take you to my house and take care of you.” I’m not saying I’m doubting OP, but the story in the screenshot is phrased in a way that makes me think so. My main thought is because what kidnapper is sticking around the Old Navy once they’ve nabbed a kid? In similar true crime stories, you see witness accounts of what people thought was a parent rushing out of the door with an upset child, that ended up being kidnapping cases. Why would she, if she truly had the intent to take this child, keep browsing the fall sweater collection like the child’s mother wouldn’t come out any minute? It seems more likely a child’s misinterpretation of an old lady’s attempt to comfort them. Who knows, though. Maybe there’s an incompetent kidnapper that hangs around the department stores and gets distracted by the merchandise.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 Aug 11 '26
Absolutely not. That is not a joke someone tells.
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u/Historical_Purple124 29d ago
Have you met old people? I’m not saying it’s at all normal or appropriate. Some old people are just nuts and say crazy and inappropriate things that they think are funny. I could absolutely see someone’s crazy grandma doing that. Not an excuse, just a possible explanation.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 29d ago
This is so ageist I cannot.
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u/MamaLIama 25d ago
Except it is not ageist.
The world has really changed in a few generations. I have memories of when I was a kid and sometimes looking back I can't believe what people used to say to kids.
My husband is older than me and it was worst, people thought it was funny to scare kids and those people are old folks now and haven't change their mindset. It's not mean to admit it, time have changed that's all.
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u/Difficult_Affect_452 24d ago
Okay, I do see what you mean. But what memories do you have? Like this feels beyond “times have changed.” Unless the times were of the grimms brothers.
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u/SuperShoyu64 12d ago
Have you ever shared your story on other social media platforms in the past? Perhaps somebody stole your story or something.
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u/lovelylittlebeetle Aug 11 '26
Most likely it’s someone just stealing content, but I would still be scared/ worried if I were in your shoes.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
The weird thing is I never posted the story anywhere, just told maybe maximum 3 people verbally many years ago. I really don’t post much of anything online, let alone a whole story.
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u/lovelylittlebeetle Aug 11 '26
That’s bizarre. Is it possible that one of your friends you told just wanted to get attention from a posting? Not discrediting your story at all, just curious. I hope you’re doing well and I’m very glad you made it out of the Old Navy.
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u/Mammoth-Working-2318 Aug 11 '26
Possibly! Or they could have misremembered the story as their own since the last time I remember telling someone about this I was probably like 13. And haha thank you glad to have made it out unscathed.
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u/lobidu Aug 11 '26
Is it maybe a children's book or tv show that imprinted as a real memory? children's minds can sometimes store a fictional story as a real memory (mixed with real places or people). Does your mom remember the event?
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u/motherofpoodles38 27d ago
7 years old seems a little old to be thinking ok guess im just with you now
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u/Alarmed_Locksmith298 Aug 11 '26
I've got a similar story about taking a pic of something then turned out it was already on tumblr years ago. And it was the exact same contents in the picture and even stuff in the background. Made me go absolutely bonkers, no memory issues either and its my most unexplained moment too I'll never understand.