The thought of someone trying to kidnap a child is enough to send most parents into a tailspin. But rather than being guided by fear, one mom took a simple, proactive step to help her daughter identify bad strangers and good strangers, and it ended up saving her daughter from what could have been a horrific tragedy. An Arizona 11-year-old is home safe today after she thwarted an attempted kidnapping by asking her would-be kidnapper to tell her the secret code word.
The unnamed 11-year-old was reportedly walking in the park with a friend when a man approached and said her brothers were in a serious accident.
The man was driving a white SUV and told the girl he'd been sent to pick her up, according to ABC 15. But instead, the girl asked him to tell her the code word — a secret word she'd established with her parents so she would know whether any stranger was actually a trusted person sent by her parents.
The guy didn't know the word, and he drove off.
Brenda James, the girl's mother, said she actually just introduced the "code word" a few months ago after reading about it online.
“This one time, it saved my daughter's life,” she told ABC 15.
"Kudos to the parents of this child for having a code word and talking about to their children about stranger danger," Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb added.
Witnesses say the man in the white SUV has been seen circling the park near the north Pecan Creek neighborhood in San Tan Valley several times a day.
Even creepier, officials told ABC 15 he allegedly covered most of his face with his hand while talking to the girl to conceal identifying features. They're still searching for a suspect, but in the meantime they're encouraging other parents around the country to implement a code word with their own kids. "We hope by putting this out, it will encourage parents to have that conversation and create a plan with their children, so they know what to do if they are in that situation," Lamb said.
The idea of having a code word has gone totally viral. Some even revealed they've had one since the '80s.
Others suggested using a secret question.
The important thing is just to be having regular conversations with kids about which kinds of strangers are safe, tricks people might use to lure them away, and how to protect themselves. A code word is a simple way to reinforce all of those ideas, and in this case, it may have saved one 11-year-old's life.
