Ten-year-old Sammy Green from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was home from school in the usual way last Friday. But then a strange woman appeared.
She started talking to him and offered to buy him food at a grocery store: «Are you going to Wawa too? I’m going to Wawa. What would you buy at Wawa? Where is your family?” the stranger asked him, as the local TV channel “6abc” reports.
Sammy immediately sensed that something was wrong. “I was scared and shaking, so I had to think quickly,” says the boy. Then he remembered what his father had taught him, if someone followed him: “Don’t trust them. Be casual and go to an adult.” So he went to his favorite shop called Dani Bee Funky.
Prevent possible kidnapping
As he entered, the stranger stopped at the door. Sammy approached cashier Hannah Daniels, 17, and whispered to her what was going on. He told her, “This woman has been following me for a while. I’ll pretend you’re my mother.”
Hannah didn’t hesitate, went to the door and locked it. The campaign was successful: the unknown fled.
“I Cried Every Time”
In fact, the woman was found later that same week by the Pottstown Police Department and committed to a psychiatric hospital. Sammy’s family is therefore not suing the woman.
Sam Green, Sammy’s father, tells the TV network how proud he is of his son – and how difficult it was for him to watch the surveillance video. “I cried every time I saw it.” Sammy is currently being escorted home from school by a family friend. The family hopes their story will encourage other families to talk about such scenarios with their children beforehand. (lrc)