"When America’s missing children are featured in popular culture, it is usually the cases of stereotypical kidnappings, which happen to be very rare. […] The third NISMART study found that approximately 105 stereotypical kidnappings occur every year in the United States (Wolak et al. 2016). That is still 105 too many. The general public may estimate a much higher number of this type of case, based on how often they are portrayed in fiction. […]
The rare kidnapping cases may be the most known of missing children cases, but are the smallest category in number. Looking at the broader nature of the missing child problem and considering the full spectrum of the missing, including endangered runaways, children taken by family members, lost and injured children, children thrown out of their homes, and children separated from their families by natural disasters and catastrophes, the number of families having a missing person increases exponentially. In 2018, there were 424,066 new reports of missing children entered into the National Crime Information Center, the computerized index of missing persons and criminal justice information (NCIC 1984, para. 1), which works out to about 1,162 new cases of missing children every day (NCMEC 2019c, para. 4). […]
Despite what many people believe, a child can be in real danger when abducted by a family member. Family abductions are cases in which a family member absconds with the child, preventing the other parent from knowing the child’s location."
Regardless of the danger or not of getting in a strangers car (and in comparison to getting into a known person's car), children are taught to not do it.
The person could simply have asked the child if they were OK or they need help, if they maybe need a phone to call their parents. Their attitude was more like seeing a stray animal out in the wild and calling animal control. They are fucking insane, there's no excuse.
I mean, yeah? There's a qualitative difference between your Uber driver showing up to the specified location where you're waiting and someone who could be an Uber driver stopping you while you're walking down the road to offer a ride.
