Almost Kidnapped

Almost Kidnapped is a collection of 10 scary true stories about boys and girls who had close calls and narrowly avoided being abducted by creeps and weirdos.

1. Who Are You?

One evening, when I was about 8 or 9, I was walking home from school. My mom worked during the day and usually came home later in the evening. When I got to my house, I took the key out of my pocket to let myself in, but just as I reached up to put the key in the lock, the door suddenly opened. My mom was standing there in her dressing gown. Instead of greeting me, she looked straight past me and, in a stern voice, demanded “Who are you?” I turned around just in time to see a man in a trenchcoat hurrying back down the path and taking off down the street. The fact that my mom was sick that day and stayed home from work probably saved me from some horrible fate…

2. Double Dutch

One night, my girlfriend and I were walking through the suburbs of Dublin. A truck stopped and a guy hopped. He was acting all friendly and asking for directions. He sounded Dutch. Something struck me as odd about the whole thing and it set me on edge. It seemed like he was trying to distract us. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted another man. He had climbed out of the truck on the other side. He had gone all the way around the back of the truck and was trying to sneak up behind us. I quickly grabbed my girlfriend by the arm and walked straight towards the sneaky guy. He backtracked really quickly when he realized he had been seen. The first guy was all like, “Come on, we mean no harm,” but he was also talking to the other guy in Dutch. My girlfriend just started running and I followed her. We didn’t stop running until we were far away from the weird guys and their truck. That was when my girlfriend told me she understood Dutch. What they were saying to each other was, “This isn’t going to work. Let’s go.”

3. Facebook Kidnapping

A 12-year-old girl from Europe got a friend request on facebook. It was from one of her classmates at school. They chatted over instant messenger and he knew a lot of information about her and her school. He said he had been sick for couple of days and asked her to bring him some books he needed for homework. She was on her way to his house when she was passing a parked car on the street and the door opened. A man got out and introduced himself as her friend’s dad. He told her to get into his car and he would drive her to her friend’s house. She didn’t want to, but he insisted. Finally, he grabbed her by the hand and tried to force her into the car. However, the girl began to scream and the neighbors came out to see what it was all about. The man fled and the girl was in such a panic she forgot to look at his license plate number. It turned out later that the facebook profile had been fake. The man had followed the girl meticulously and knew everything about her. He knew where she lived, where she went to school and which of her classmates had not been at school that day.

4. The Man in the Truck

When I was 14, I was waiting for the bus and this pickup truck pulled up beside me. The driver kept waving at me to come closer and he held up a map. It seemed like he wanted directions. I went over to the truck and he rolled down the window. I didn’t realize what was happening until he reached out and tried to grab me by the hair. I dropped my bag and ran for it as he sped off. When I got home, I woke my mom and told her what happened. She flipped out. Then, we looked out the window. Surprise, surprise… The truck was sitting across the street and the man was sitting in the driver’s seat, staring up at us. That’s when I flipped out.

My mom called the police and gave them a description, but the man drove off. Later on, the police called back to tell us they had pulled someone over and wanted me to take a look at him. They put me in the back of an unmarked patrol car with tinted windows and drove me past a guy who was being questioned outside his truck. It was him. I almost had a panic attack. They charged him with attempted kidnapping. It made all the local newspapers. The spot where they pulled him over was right in front of an elementary school and when they searched his truck, they found rope, duct tape and an axe.

5. The Postman

One day, when I was 10 years old, I stayed home sick from school. I was lying on the couch, watching TV, when I heard the doorbell ringing. It was the postman. He told me he had a package to deliver, but it was so big that he needed me to help him carry. I don’t know why, but I knew something wasn’t quite right.

I didn’t see his truck parked out front and when I asked him where it was, he told me it was around the corner. I asked him why the regular postman wasn’t here and he said he was visiting family. He kept telling me to open the front door. I said I was sick and I wasn’t allowed to leave the house. I told him my parents would pick up the package from the post office, but he said that would be too much of a hassle and told me my mom would want me to take the package now.

I told him I had to get my shoes first and then i would come out and help him. Then, I closed the front door, locked it and ran to the back door and locked it too. I called our neighbor, who was a close family friend, and begged her to come over right now. Then, I stood at the front window and stared at the man. When he saw me, he yelled through the door asking if I had found my shoes yet. I yelled back, telling him that I called my neighbor to come and help carry the package because she was older and stronger. He just turned around and ran off.

They never caught him. I always wonder if he ever managed to trick some other kid.

6. The Tall Man in the Park

When I was 15, my mother went out shopping and left me in charge of the house. It was starting to get dark and I realized my little brother was nowhere to be found. I asked my sister if she knew where he was and she said he had gone to the park around the corner to kick his football around. I told her to watch the house while I was gone and ran off in the direction of the park.

When I got there, I was surprised to find the park completely empty. I called out my brother’s name, but there was no answer. I started to get worried. All of a sudden, I heard a faint, muffled noise coming from my left. I turned just in time to see a tall figure disappearing behind a large fence. I sprinted as fast as I could and when I came around to the other side of the fence, I saw something that almost made me choke in horror.

My little brother was being dragged down the alleyway by a tall man. I flew into a rage and tears of anger streamed down my face. I ran at him and he must have heard me coming, because he turned around to face me and dropped my younger brother. The tall man tried to grab me but I was running at him so fast that when I slammed into him, I knocked him off his feet. He swore and tried to get back up but I just started stomping on his face.

Without stopping to ask questions, I picked my brother up and ran as fast as I could back to our house. By this time, it was pitch black outside and my mother was home. She was frantic with worry and when she saw the look on both of our faces, she realized that something bad had happened. As I explained, my brother and I started crying and my mum gave us both the biggest hug ever and cried with us.

7. I’ll Give You a Lift

When I was 13, I was walking home from school. It was a Friday and both my parents were working and my brother was still at school. It started to rain and I had no umbrella. The next thing I knew, a car came along and slowed down.

The driver was a guy in his early thirties and he said, “Hey, Elaine, jump in. I’ll give you a lift.” I told him my name wasn’t Elaine. He apologised and said I looked very like her and offered to give me a lift anyway.

I knew this was dodgy, so I said, “No thanks, my house is just here,” and pointed to a random house nearby. Then, I quickly walked into the entrance of the house and hid there for a few minutes, waiting for him to leave.

When I walked back out, I realized he had just pulled over on the side of the road and was getting out of his car. He knew it wasn’t my house. I dropped my schoolbag and just took off running. He followed me. I ran all the way to my house when I remembered I didn’t have my keys and nobody was home. I was absolutely terrified.

I started banging on the front door and all of a sudden, it opened. My brother was standing there. He had stayed home sick from school. I was crying so much I could barely talk and I just kept pointing at the man coming up the road. My brother grabbed a Hurley stick and ran outside. As soon as the man saw my brother, he ran back to his car, jumped in and sped off.

We didn’t manage to get his licence plate number so he was never found, but I’m sure he wanted to kidnap me and possibly hurt or kill me. It was very scary and I was so lucky that my brother was there or I might have been just another statistic.

8. How I Lost My Finger

When I was 7, my mom asked me to deliver something to a neighbor. It was very dark that night and there were no street lights. I could barely see anything. On the way home, I came to a bend in the road with big bushes on both sides. All of a sudden, I heard a loud rustling behind me. When I looked behind me, I saw a tall, dark figure emerging from the bushes. I started running. I could hear a man’s heavy breathing close behind me. I ran as fast as I could, but he was gaining on me. I dodged to the right and took a shortcut through a hole in a row of tall bushes. I reached the driveway of ny house and heard him crash through the bushes. He was still after me.

When I got to the front door, I caught my pinky finger on the screen. I was s terrified, I rushed inside and slammed the door shut. I loced it and screamed for my parents. I didn’t notice my finger was missing until my mom gave me a big hug. My dad ran out with a gun and tried to find the guy, but he was gone. When my dad came back, he found my finger and put it in a bag of ice to take to the hospital, but they couldn’t reattach it. A few months later, in a neighboring town, a boy about my age went missing while walking home late at night. Then another went missing a few months after that. They were never heard from again and I can’t help thinking that if I hadn’t been so quick on my feet, I might have suffered the same fate.

9. Carjacked

One afternoon, my mother stopped by and offered to take my 3-year old daughter Jenna shopping. Jenna was reluctant to go, but I was eager for some time alone, so I encouraged her to go with her grandma.

About an hour later, my dad’s car pull up outside. As soon as he got out of his car, he yelled, “Someone stole your mother’s car and Jenna was in it.”

My mom had been waiting in line at the toy store when a man approached her and told her that her car had a flat tire. He volunteered to change it and when he was finished, my mom thanked him. He told her he was going to test the steering, but when my mom handed him the keys, he just got into the driver’s seat and sped off.

When I heard the news, I became hysterical. I couldn’t stop sobbing and I felt sick to my stomach. The police issued a bulletin alerting all officers to be on the lookout for my mother’s car and my daughter’s abduction became national news.

Over the next few hours, I was totally terrified and all I could think about was scared and lonely my daughter must be. I was worried she was going to be killed. Time passed like an eternity.

The next morning, I got a call saying they had found the car. Someone called the police to say they’d spotted an abandoned vehicle and a little girl was inside. It was Jenna. She was unharmed and still strapped into her car seat, just as she had been when the kidnapper drove away.

As soon as we got the news, we raced to the hospital where Jenna had been taken for a checkup. I ran to her and held her close. The first thing she said to me was, “I peed in Grandma’s car.”

10. The Creepy Old Man

My friend and I were both 9 years old and she lived just down the road from me. We always walked home from school together. One day, a car was driving very slowly along the road and the old man inside was staring at us. My friend and I felt very uneasy. All of a sudden, he pulled up right in front of us, almost hitting us. My friend ran down the path towards her house and I ran in the direction of my house. When I got to my driveway, I glanced back and saw his car. He was following me.

I was very frightened at this point and ran up to the door and banged really hard on it. At the time, my family would always argue about whose turn it was to answer the door and I knew it would take ages for them to open it. I glanced back again and saw the creepy old man walking towards me. He had gotten out of his car. I was almost crying at this point. Suddenly, my brother opened the door and when the old weirdo saw this, he jumped back into his car and tore off.

11. The Little Old Lady

When I was little, my mom was friends with a little old lady who lived near us. One day, the little old lady picked me up from kindergarden. She had my little brother with her and she told me my mom had sent her to pick us up. The little old lady brought us back to her house. All her furniture was covered in plastic. She gave us ice cream and let us play with some board games. After a few hours, we ate dinner and the little old lady turned on the TV. There was my mom. She was on the news, crying and freaking out and saying her children had been kidnapped. The little old lady flipped out. She called the police to tell them where we were. In the end, it turned out that my mom had completely forgotten she asked the little old lady to pick us up from school.