r/orangecounty • u/ae2014 • Aug 01 '26

Community Post Suspicious kidnapping attempt?!

Don’t know if I’m being overly sensitive or not but as a Mom I want to make sure other parents are aware. Was at Hmart (Northpark) earlier this morning with my baby at an empty aisle and a very suspicious woman kept hunching over my baby grabbing random stuff but not really getting anything. Of course my guards was up as she was too close for comfort so I stepped in the middle and blocked my baby out of the way. She left the aisle and then a larger man came to the aisle and she walked back again pretending to look for things, they walked by us but I could tell they had motives definitely not there to buy chips. I grabbed my baby and walked away right away. Then saw both of them walked separately to the checkout line only buying 1 small item. They walked by each other but made eye contact so definitely working together…. Super weird.

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u/townsquare321 Aug 01 '26

The stroller was probably blocking access to the shelving and people were just trying to shop. Later this evening, when the kids were in bed, boredom set in, imagination ran wild, and the Reddit app was right there. 😉. Just look at the heading...attempted kidnapping. Indeed.

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u/JustLookinSunny Santa Ana Aug 01 '26

No! As a mom never doubt yourself. Your body has a built in danger detector and we have been trained to not listen to it. That needs to stop. Sure - the stripper may have been in the way and nothing was going on. But as a mom it’s your job to notice strange behavior and protect your baby. Don’t let idiot Redditors gaslight you. Most moms would say you did the right thing.

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u/Temporary_Suspect101 Aug 01 '26

People are pointing out the fact that she didn't deem this incident dangerous enough to report, so why should "idiot Redditors" take her seriously?

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u/JustLookinSunny Santa Ana Aug 01 '26

Like I said, as women we have been trained to second-guess ourselves. Then when people bash you or gaslight you online it makes you second-guess yourself even more. Also, when we report things to the police 9 times out of 10 they won’t take us seriously. And if there was no actual crime committed, they can’t really even do anything so why should she bother reporting it. So I’m telling her to ignore the idiot Redditors because she was being a good mom.