Some of the comments from my post yesterday about leashing Connor when shopping reminded me of a story I got told at a kids party the other day, and also reminded me that I hadn’t blogged about it yet. This is a true dinkum story even though I haven’t heard about it in the news… a friend’s husband got told the saga at a local policing forum.

This used to happen a few years ago in this country, and I haven’t heard this kind of thing happening in a few years, but apparently the cops are very worried about the increase in child trafficking in anticipation of the World Cup next year.

Anyhoo, this is what happened a few weeks ago in a major shopping mall close to where I live in Johannesburg.

A mom was shopping in a large department store with her 3 year old little boy.  Boy was running around while she was browsing and looking at things on shelves.  She turns around to look for him, but couldn’t find him anywhere.

The mom went to the tills and the manager got called, and he had the sense to lock the store down to look for the child. They apparently closed the front doors and back doors stopping staff from leaving too.

After searching the entire store, the child was eventually found… and where you may ask…

… in the staff toilets in the back of the store.  He was found on the floor of a loo, drugged, hair shaven off and in different clothes already!  He was ready to be removed.

Absolutely FRIGHTENING! I’ve heard stories like that before, but kinda thought it might be an urban legend… but clearly it’s not.

And so, even more reason for me to leash Connor to stop him from running off!