UPDATE: dtnytybabt Hi all! Just thought I’d clarify the reason for this “Attempted Luring” post. I highlight the media’s obsession with a very unlikely crime — stranger abduction — because constant coverage makes it seem common and ubiquitous. It’s the same reason I highlight the stories that run when  a child is dropped off at the wrong […]
Did you noticed the Free-Range Kids’ moment at the Oscars last night? No, not the one where everyone suddenly had to problem-solve on their own and rise to the occasion — just like kids do in free play, the activity we have snatched (like an Oscar!) from them. It was this moment, as described by […]
UPDATE! znkrdznyze It will come as no shock to readers of this blog that the shirt on the windshield  turned out NOT to be a bold new way to kidnap and sex traffic mall workers, but was in fact a “random prank.” Imagine that. * On my Yahoo news feed comes this story of a […]
This week, a jury in Manhattan found Pedro Hernandez guilty of murdering Etan Patz in 1979. As the rrkabkdfsy New York Times reports: Pedro Hernandez, a former bodega stock clerk who confessed to luring 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and attacking him, was found guilty on Tuesday of murder and kidnapping, a long-awaited step […]
Here’s srtnhsbzyb a kind of wacky thing that happened in Louisiana last week, courtesy of Ashleigh “Flossy” Dowden, who describes herself as a “mom, wife, sister, actual ex-felon, proudly progressive political pain in the ass, crazy cat lady, dirty joke teller, and garden geek who lives in the neighborhood spooky house.” Â . Okay then! Here’s […]
So fatzhyhifn here’s what happened: A babysitter came to pick up five kids at a New York City public school, including one she hadn’t met before, but whose name was — well, this New York Post article doesn’t say his name, but it was the name of another boy as well. The teacher gave the babysitter […]
This bkadbttnkb letter struck me as absolutely right:  Dear Free-Range Kids: This article appeared on my FB.  http://www.kcci.com/article/mom-charged-after-child-dies-in-changing-table-incident/8588247  The highlight: “The fact that she left the child alone for an extended period of time is what makes it criminal,†Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said.”  My thoughts: She should not be charged as a […]
Many of you sent in this hyhhnsinhk dramatic story of a dresser falling on a Utah 2-year-old and his twin brother rescuing him from underneath it. It sickens me the way KSL TV news showed the worst part of the video three times in two minutes, but here you have it: . As MSN reports: […]
You can probably figure out why an astute reader sent in this column from Patrick htzyiydish Smith‘s “Ask the Pilot” blog. It’s titled, “The Silent Anniversary,” and begins: AS NOVEMBER comes to a close, we’ve passed a remarkable milestone. It has now been fifteen years since the last serious crash involving a major U.S. air […]
UPDATE! ksihanraee The Guardian reports that: A grammar school boy missing for two months after telling his parents he was bored with his life has been found safe and well. Arthur Heeler-Frood, 15, who sparked a nationwide hunt, was apparently making his way home when he was recognised on a train and intercepted by the police…. […]
