Sunday 25 April 2010

Keep 'em peeled

********* Red Alert.... red alert.... *********

I have heard about one or two very, very serious incidents around Plumstead. I've heard that there have been attempts to grab children off the street, and [I think], bundle them into a car. I think this has happened around primary schools, but I don't know if it's happened in the morning or afternoon.

I'm pretty sure the children were without their parents, but don't know if they were alone or with other children.

It's very difficult to report this without being alarmist about it. I don't believe the World has become an uglier place, and do believe such incidents happened when I were a child. I remember being told not to take sweets from strangers. I remember this message from my parents and also learning this from watching TV.

People. Don't go around thinking that every car is suspicious, but just be careful. If I get time tomorrow, I'll contact the Safer Neighbourhood Team to see if they are either aware of it, or ready to hop into their panda cars when called.

7 comments:

PlumBun said...

OMG...that is serious indeed. Have not heard anything about it from parents at school but I shall be taking more care than usual. There was the lady who had her pug dog bundled into a car near Garland Road (I think) a few weeks back which made the papers, perhaps they have progressed from dogs to children. Hideous. Hopefully there will be some undercover police work going on near schools to try and catch the culprits.

Plummy Mummy said...

Did you find anything further on this. I had a look on the safer neighbourhoods site but nowt there.
It's a bit worrying.
As for the pug dog, are you sure that wasn't the police gathering up dangerous dogs?

streetwise said...

good to warn people if this is happening but I'd be intrigued to know the source of this info. There was an identical scare a few years ago that turned out to be entirely without foundation (or let's say the snatchee/s were never identified or traced by any authority). Let's hope this is indeed another urban myth. The alternative is not pleasant to contemplate.

streetwise said...

... but I should add, there is EVERY reason to run your child through some hopefully unlikely but sadly possible scenarios regarding strangers from "Do you like puppies?" to "Your mummy is ill and I've been sent to get you and take you to her" with recommended simple actions like immediately referring to an independent adult woman. Snatching and grabbing can only be countered by VERY LOUD screams of "Help Me". I remember well during one of these "what you should do if..." sessions my young daughter quite spontaneously deciding the best action would be to kick me very firmly between the legs!

Nigel said...

Sounds like chinese whispers to me.

The lady whose dog was stolen was our neighbour. It was a pedigree dog - a very small pug puppy, worth around £1000, and definitely not a dangerous dog!
They were re-united with Ruby 3 weeks later after police recovered her, partly as a result of local media coverage.
Don't be fooled [or made anxious] by the rumour mills ;)

Anonymous said...

yes, i heard the details of the pug dog being snatched; it was on BBC London news. it must have been a terrible experience for your neighbour, nigel.
plummy mummy, i can tell from some of your blog posts that you're not keen on dogs, but really! it is wrong to make negative assumptions about all dogs/dog owners! there are many lovely dogs and responsible dog owners in the area; and actually they are the majority. the few bad ones give the rest of us a bad name.
the good dog owners are central to the life of the common, and being out and about on the common walking their dogs means that there are plenty of eyes keeping notice of what's going on, seeing kids make their ways to/from school, as well as picking up litter, reporting grafitti, etc.
so, please, don't knock us all!
on the matter of the alleged child-snatcher, Dr P, please can you give more details on this story, whether it's been verified, and what the SNT is doing to address the issue.
thanks.

Plummy Mummy said...

Anon...I was just referencing the recent news about dogs being taken in by police. Yes, I'm not keen on them however, I will try hard to not tar all dog owners with the same brush in future.