BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Missing & Exploited Children Would You Help a Missing Child?

This was staged, to see how people responded to a "missing child".

A news team put up a poster for "this child is missing". Then they had THAT CHILD sit right next to the poster, all alone. They watched from a safe distance.

Only TWO people talked with her! Many people looked at the poster, but ignored her. Apparently a few people said afterwards that they thought she looked the same as the poster girl. However, they were afraid they were wrong and that the parents would show up when they went to talk with the child and yell at them.

Isn't that sad, that we live in a society where people want to do the right thing but are afraid of over-protective parents yelling at them if they try?

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Thanks to the post that started me thinking I have completed a story on a very interesting investigation done my a local Florida news team.

I wish to thank Lisa Shea, owner of BellaOnline, for posting this eye-opening article in the MEC Forum. Her post is what got me thinking again about how we avoid really seeing those around us.

After you have viewed the article I wrote Would You Help a Missing Child? please stop by this post and let us know what you think.

I saw a little girl in a mall one day, she could not have been more than 3. She was backed up in a corner, her eyes wide and frightened and crying. Everyone was just ignoring her. I walked over to her and said, "Are you lost, sweetie?" She said, "No, my mommy's lost." I said, "Can I help you find her?" The little darling took my hand and started crying harder. I took her into the nearest store and asked the manager to call Security. The little girl would not let me leave and trusted no one else. She held my hand till the mother got there and then the girl let go of me and ran to her mommy.

I find it hard to believe that so many people just walked by her without seeing if she needed help - even though I saw it happen. The mother was very grateful that I helped to calm her little girl and kept her safe. I did not judge who's fault it was, it was just one of those things where parent and child got separated.

Yes - if I recognized a missing child I would do what I could to help.

I was coming home from work one day. I have to drive down a small side street. It isn't very wide, just enough for two cars to pass. There was a small latino girl in the middle of the road, still in diapers, probably about 2 years old. This is the hard to believe part, but cars were passing her. She was standing on the dividing line in the very center of the road.. and cars were passing within inches of her! One woman passed her, saw me and shook her head in a "good lord!" kind of way, but she didn't stop.
I stopped and pulled over and picked her up. There were some men in a yard and I asked where she lived. They pointed to a trailer across the road and I took her there and knocked on the door. No one was at home.
I took her a block over to the police station and explained the situation and he followed me back over to the trailer and knocked. The men across the street told the policeman that the mother had walked to the store. They said they knew the mother.
The policeman asked me if I wanted to give the child to the men and let them watch her till her mother got back. I told him No. I said, "I will put her in your hands and let you be responsible for something like that."
The policeman later told me that was the second time that had happened and they warned the mother that if it happened again they would take the child. She apparently left the child home alone while she went to the store and the child opened the door and got out.

yes I was heartbroken about the mother, but I was thoroughly disgusted with the people who drove passed her, putting her life in danger and never thinking to stop and take care of her. They drove by her so close she could have reached out and touched their car.

Thankfully the little girl was ok.

Thankyou for helping her or the outcome might have been gravely different.

The mother was playing Russian roulette with the child's life and luckily the little girl did not pay the ultimate price. Perhaps they arraigned help for the mom in the form of parenting classes and eventually reunited the child and mother.

The officers saying to leave the girl with the men should be turned in for stupidity, not doing their job, and suggesting a girl be left with strange men. unbelievable!

Hello. I am a new member and I am seeking information and thought this would be a good place to start as none of my web searches seemed to help me out. Is there a standard Mall policy in the U.S. regarding lock-down when a child goes missing fom the Mall or someone thinks they see a missing child in the mall? If anyone can answer this or point me in the right direction so I can research this I would be most grateful. Thank you.

Hello,

Most malls in the US have some form of mall security that is usually on the grounds until the mall closes. If they aren't not there I would contact the local police and give them a description of the missing child and how long its been since the child went missing. The local authorities are your best resource in starting a search. The police should be able to direct you to local organizations that can assist in the search for the missing child.

Thank you for your reply. I am following the Caylee Anthony case, and there was a reported sighting of her at an Orlando, Fl. mall. Two employees of this mall, who were certain this was Caylee, watched this little girl for 20 minutes, then took pictures of her on their cell phone, then called the Tip line set up for this particular child. In this order. They never called mall security or the police dept. I had thought that a lock-down of the mall was to take place when there was an issue regarding a missing child, and employees would be trained in this matter. So now, of course, there are only grainy pictures of this girl and noone knows if this was Caylee or not, as nobody has come forth to say this is my child, not Caylee. If this is not standard procedure for all Malls in the U.S., it needs to be soon. Again, thank you for replying. Have a great day!

Most malls and public places have a Code Adam Policy for missing or abducted children. Here is a link to an article on that topic.

Code Adam

I was a mall security guard for many years and believe me it is impossible to lock down a mall. Most of the doors have a push bar so people can get out when the doors are locked and there is so many service entrances in back hallways and most stores have their own back entrances.

All mall doors have to be locked with a key and unless you have ten security guards on, it would be impossible to run around and lock every door. When I worked third shift, I had to go and lock all the doors and it took me no less than an hour to do it and I always tried to see how quick I could do it. My best time was 47 mins.

Department stores like Wal-Mart can lock down their stores because they only have a couple of doors that need to be locked and their security can stand in front of the doors until police arrive. Can you imagine trying to lock down places like The Mall of America?

Anchor stores like Macy's, Sears and such can close their gates so no one can get into or leave the mall from their stores and a lot of malls do not even have security cameras installed in the mall, even in this day and age. Sad but true.

Thanks Vance for the clarification. My daughter wonders why I won't let her hang out at the mall with her friends...lol!

I personally cannot stand malls and other large crowded places with lots of people who maybe on large amounts of anti-psychotics.

The dichotomy of fire safety rules that work in favor of pedophiles and kidnappers.

Seriously, Vance has a point. Mall doors (the main ones) cannot be easily locked because they are fire exits. And there must always be a minimum number of fire exits available (depending upon how many people the mall holds).

The malls need to make sure they hire enough security to personally man each of these fire exits in case of a Code Adam or Code Pink (as some places call it).

I have had personal experience with this kind of thing. Some of you may remember my youngest, Seth, running away from home when he was about 2. He wanted to go see his GranMama. We couldn't find him anywhere and had to cll 911, I was a hysterical mess. 2 women who happened to be in the area goin to yard sales saw him running down the street, picked him up and called 911. I was on the phone with my own 911 operator - and the two realized they were talking about the same child. You would have thought it was New Year's over that phone.

But I will always be thankful for those two ladies NOT minding their own business, because the next street he would have gotten onto is a very high traffic street, and he could havebeen hurt very badly.