Another attempted abduction?

trinz23

Heard on the news this morning that a young girl was approached by a man in a white van in Annacotty?

What the hell is going on? And what can people do to keep their kids safe? I have heard of parents giving their kids passwords and if anyone approaches them saying they have been sent by parents they need to know the secret password? What measures need to be taken to stop something serious happening??

Poxyshamrock

Why do all these people drive white vans?

bazz26

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Why do all these people drive white vans?

Exactly, seems to be alot of crying wolf lately. Hard to tell what is genuine anymore.

LucyLouLou

Surely it's nearly time for another Larry Murphy sighting as well then?

zuroph

the girl in annacotty was "some kind of approach" by man in white van. That could literally be anything from asking for directions to much worse.
there's a few white van driving types that hang around the park/playground/skate park there in the nights, they're not child abductors, just scobes.

No harm in being vigilant, but full details not public so we don't know what this was.

wingnut

The van in question:

Jofspring

Sadly its become laughable at this stage. Nearly once a week now there is something going up on Facebook or the like about a white van approaching children in a particular part of Limerick. Surely with amount of reports supposedly coming out there would have been a real abduction at this stage.

People need to be very careful, especially letting their kids out around the neighborhoods with it getting darker earlier. These constant reports don't help in my opinion unless they can be very accurate reports and not just "be careful lads, someone told me a fella in a white van approached kids in castletroy earlier"

zuroph

also, serious amounts of young teens hanging out in Annacotty at night lately, I wouldnt put it past some parents putting this out to try get a curfew going! Gonna be more peaceful when I walk my dogs at night now anyway for a few weeks!

seachto7

zuroph wrote: »

also, serious amounts of young teens hanging out in Annacotty at night lately,

...............*gets in white van*.....................

Wilbert13

According to Limerick Leader gardai are only looking at two attempts, the one on Lord Edward Street and one in Fedamore. They also reported another incident on Wednesday.

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local/gardai-concerned-over-inappropriate-approaches-to-children-1-4474552

GARDAI in Limerick have put parents on alert after another incident in which a young boy was approached by a stranger on the way home from school.


The latest incident was brought to light by an alert garda who spotted a middle aged man walking with a young teenage boy on O’Connell Street. The man was carrying one of the schoolboy’s bags.

The garda spoke to the man and the boy separately and the man described the schoolboy as a friend and that they had been friends for a number of months. He also stated that he sometimes walked the boy home from school.

“The garda also spoke to the boy and he stated that the man had engaged in some inappropriate conversation with him. The garda brought the boy home and spoke with his parents. The boy was not harmed in any way but the relationship and use of inappropriate conversation is a matter of concern. This incident is being investigated by gardaí from Henry Street,” explained Crime Prevention Officer, Sgt Brian Broderick.

kilburn

I would imagine a lot of this is urban myth but unfortunately some day it probably will happen

this is starting to get out of hands did person still not caught

Wilbert13

I reckon the latest one about the teenage boy on O'Connell Street is true, there is a guy with a bit of previous around the area a lot lately

Jofspring

The one on O'Connell street is frightening in fairness. It's lucky the Gardai had knowledge of the man so intervened.

Roadtrippin

bazz26 wrote: »

Exactly, seems to be alot of crying wolf lately. Hard to tell what is genuine anymore.

They get a deal for the friendly neighbourhood Paedo model... :P

No, seriously, this is terrible really. I should not be joking!
How can people protect their children? Only thing I can think of is never let your child walk home from school, i.e. pick them up and so on.

Or give them pepper spray... Lol. Only half joking!

Isn't it sad that we have to resort to things like that these days?

phill106

Mental note: Make child difficult to abduct

ShaneMc2012

There was an announcement over the intercom in Laurel Hill about a week ago about a man approaching girls outside the Redemptorist? Apparently they're not allowed wait outside there when it gets dark or something along the lines of that!

juneg

ShaneMc2012 wrote: »

There was an announcement over the intercom in Laurel Hill about a week ago about a man approaching girls outside the Redemptorist? Apparently they're not allowed wait outside there when it gets dark or something along the lines of that!

I was reliably informed that it was a flasher.

fryup

imagine being a completely innocent white van driver pulling up and asking for directions...someone someday is going to be accused in the wrong

cofy

While my daughter was playing one day on the lawn (she was 6 at the time) a white van pulled up outside the fence. I saw this through the window and went outside as I walked towards my child and the van, the van sped off. I genuinely believe this was NOT an attempted child abduction, but it was an incredibly stupid thing for the driver to do. My daughter told me they were looking for directions and I believe that they were, but speeding off like that is just so stupid.

cofy

cofy wrote: »

While my daughter was playing one day on the lawn (she was 6 at the time) a white van pulled up outside the fence. I saw this through the window and went outside as I walked towards my child and the van, the van sped off. I genuinely believe this was NOT an attempted child abduction, but it was an incredibly stupid thing for the driver to do. My daughter told me they were looking for directions and I believe that they were, but speeding off like that is just so stupid.

That's the thing though, people are so scared of being under any suspicion that they'll act suspiciously. Say you read about an "attempted abduction" in the paper and you were in the area at the time, it's a similar vehicle to yours etc. Would you go and correct the Gardai or the people involved or just keep quiet?

cofy

Deleted User wrote: »

That's the thing though, people are so scared of being under any suspicion that they'll act suspiciously. Say you read about an "attempted abduction" in the paper and you were in the area at the time, it's a similar vehicle to yours etc. Would you go and correct the Gardai or the people involved or just keep quiet?

Behaving suspiciously is only going to make things a whole lot worse, I would go and correct the Gardai definitely, to avoid any further hysteria.

cofy

cofy wrote: »

Behaving suspiciously is only going to make things a whole lot worse, I would go and correct the Gardai definitely, to avoid any further hysteria.

When I saw "suspiciously" I don't mean actually suspiciously :P

therealgirl

cofy wrote: »

While my daughter was playing one day on the lawn (she was 6 at the time) a white van pulled up outside the fence. I saw this through the window and went outside as I walked towards my child and the van, the van sped off. I genuinely believe this was NOT an attempted child abduction, but it was an incredibly stupid thing for the driver to do. My daughter told me they were looking for directions and I believe that they were, but speeding off like that is just so stupid.

I might be a bit OTT here but I wouldn't ever stop & ask a kid for directions, especially as young as six..I'd think it was weird if someone asked my kid for directions while they were alone...especially as young as six.
But maybe life has just made me overly wary

Mc Love

It used to happen the whole time when I was growing up as a kid. Maybe not that young as six though!

mikemac1

therealgirl wrote: »

I might be a bit OTT here but I wouldn't ever stop & ask a kid for directions, especially as young as six..I'd think it was weird if someone asked my kid for directions while they were alone...especially as young as six.
But maybe life has just made me overly wary

When I was a young 'un and out wandering around town with others, people would call you to their front door, give you money get milk, cigarettes (yes shops sold to kids), bread, whatever

And you get some change to buy sweets
Pack of taytos cost 12p!

Do that nowadays and call children to your door and give them money and the local sergeant will be calling around to interview you :eek:
And you'll probably get a thread about you on boards.ie

therealgirl

Mc Love wrote: »

It used to happen the whole time when I was growing up as a kid. Maybe not that young as six though!

Yes, and to me too when I was a kid...but we were never told about people who abduct children...nobody was back then...so half of them were actually probably weirdos when I was a kid, I just didn't know about it

castle

I think this is all an white elephant, think about it if 2 adults wanted to kidnap a child it would be quite straight forward I would think,I just think it is one of these made up things.attention seeking comes to mind

therealgirl

mikemac1 wrote: »

When I was a young 'un and out wandering around town with others, people would call you to their front door, give you money get milk, cigarettes (yes shops sold to kids), bread, whatever

And you get some change to buy sweets
Pack of taytos cost 12p!

Do that nowadays and call children to your door and give them money and the local sergeant will be calling around to interview you :eek:
And you'll probably get a thread about you on boards.ie

I just remember never hearing anything about kids getting messed with, being abducted or anything when I was a kid...I think it happened just the same as now, only its not a bloody sin to say it aloud these days!

It would be nice not to have to make your kids so wary about everyone though & have them grow up in the more carefree world we did!
I wonder how many kids are going to have trust issues when they are grown up, if they are going to be more sceptical of others from having to grow up in that way.

cofy

therealgirl wrote: »

I might be a bit OTT here but I wouldn't ever stop & ask a kid for directions, especially as young as six..I'd think it was weird if someone asked my kid for directions while they were alone...especially as young as six.
But maybe life has just made me overly wary

I would be the same as you, I don't think you are being overly wary. Most people looking for directions will actually drive up to the house and ring the doorbell when looking for directions, we live in a rural area so we get a lot of this.

bullets

This White Van is certainly doing the rounds. Not just Humans are safe
now its apparently approaching dogs according to the Limerick Animal Welfare Facebook page.

We are receiving reports of a white van in castletroy area attempting to take dogs - both male and female in van and the dogs may be drugged - luckily the dog they tried for is ok - suffered blood loss but is safe - please please be vigilant and ensure your pet is safe

nobody ever seems to get a reg number of any of these mysterious vans that are stalking our Children and Pets, despite every Jack Barry having a camera phone these days.

~B