Community Chat

[MorningLover]

Nov.14,2022

POTTSTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- A 10-year-old boy is being praised for his quick thinking after he says a woman tried to lure him away in Pottstown on Friday.

Sammy Green was walking home after school when a woman started following him on High Street.

"Started walking with him and asking him where his family was, asking where his dad was," said Sam Green, the boy's father.

Sammy did not know the woman, but she insisted she knew the child's family, and said he was supposed to come with her.

"She said she was going to Wawa and that he was supposed to go with her and he could get anything he wanted," Sammy Green said.

The fourth grader was walking home from school when a stranger started following him. The woman offered to buy him food and claimed to know his family.

Sammy knew something was wrong and decided to go for help at a store that he was familiar with. Surveillance video shows him walking into Dani Bee Funky and go straight to the cashier to whisper something to her.

"He said to 'act like you're my mom, this lady is following me,'" Green said.

In the video, the cashier put herself between Sammy and the woman who was still standing at the door. Then she walked over to the door, pulled it shut and locked it. The woman then left.

"When we were watching that video, I cried every time I saw it," said Sammy’s father.  “To see my child seek help because he feared for his life, it cuts you deep,” Green told the local news station.

Sammy credits his father for teaching him to be wary of strangers and to always be aware of his surroundings.

“Think about each scenario and make sure kids know it and practice it too,”  Sam Green said. “Practice your situations and scenarios just like fire drills.”

It was reported that Pottstown police found the woman over the weekend and she has been referred for mental health help.

Sammy now has a family friend who drives him home from school after the scare.

Video footage ...

https://6abc.com/pottstown-attempted-luring-montgomery-county-attempt-surveillance-video-caught-on-c...

[Chopsmom]

Savvy and brave.

I hope the police are actively searching for that sicko who no doubt was trying to harm him.

[Goldengate8361]

So glad for a great outcome. Very scary!

[ECBG]

So glad the dad drilled safety into his son's head.  Many times children have a feeling that all adults are right or good.

There was a wonderful child's book "Never Talk To Strangers" for young children that was wonderful.

Now it's on amazon.

[Nonametoday]

---

@Chopsmom wrote:

Savvy and brave.

I hope the police are actively searching for that sicko who no doubt was trying to harm him.

---

@Chopsmom 

That sicko is a mental patient who has already been confined.  We are too lenient with people who would stalk children.  There was a time when we were not but children are becoming their prey now and our courts are giving them a slap on the wrist.

[chrystaltree]

It's scary.  Smart kid. Kudos to his dad for teaching him how to stay safe and to the cashier who took him seriously and protected him.

[Jersey Born]

@MorningLover - Thank you for posting this.  Children all around the world should read this and watch the video so they will know how to avoid being kidnapped or worse. 

The woman/lurer was found by police and is to go for mental counseling.  I am concerned that due to what the lurer said to the boy that this was a planned event, where she was looking for a young boy or girl, possibly for trafficking through a network, and this was just a moment of opportunity for the woman to kidnap a child. The idea that she wanted to convince the boy that she knew his parents and that they told her to tell him to somewhere with her and she would buy him anything he wanted at a particular store does not sit well with me. The lurer had her set of lies all ready to use on this child. I sure hope that the police are following her closely after her "mental health referral" to determine if she is part of a larger child trafficking ring.

It is disturbing that the lurer's face was blurred in the video, because she is still able to walk around (no arrest was made), and no other children will have a clue what she looks like so that they might better be able to protect themselves from her-- i.e. to spot her coming near them for the same purpose. Perhaps this is for the benefit of the police, however, so that they can watch this more closely and make her feel more comfortable in order to find and identify her close contacts and bring down a trafficking ring. I sure hope that is the case. 

On a much happier note, that young boy is amazing!  I am so happy for him and for his parents. That store clerk, possibly someone the child knew from prior visits to the store, was wonderful, too! 

[Nancy Drew]

The boy was awesome, the cashier was awesome, the police were awesome. I just hope they aren't betrayed by the criminals come first crowd and she  is back on the streets where another child doesn't get the good outcome.

[Judaline]

---

@ECBG wrote:

So glad the dad drilled safety into his son's head.  Many times children have a feeling that all adults are right or good.

There was a wonderful child's book "Never Talk To Strangers" for young children that was wonderful.

Now it's on amazon.

---

I saw several books with this title on Amazon.  Do you know the author?

[phoenixbrd]

Kudos all the way around, especially to the shop owner who was perceptive and quick to control the situation.  Thanks @MorningLover for sharing this happy ending!