Product Review: Personalized Hats For Kids are a Horrible Idea
I recently saw a post for your chance to win an adorable knit hat for your baby or child – and best of all it would be personalized with your little blessing’s name. I went to the website that was sponsoring the giveaway and read: “[Company] specializes in Personalized Baby Sweaters and Handmade Baby Clothes for Babies, Infants, Toddlers and Children.”
Really? Personalized apparel for small, innocent, helpless children? A pedophile or kidnapper’s dream! “Well hello little er, ah, … Suzy! Your mom asked me to pick you up because she had to work late.” Or “Why yes, officer, this baby … I mean my baby, Royce, IS my son. Why? Did someone say otherwise?”
What a horribly, unsafe practice. I’m sure the store owner is a very sweet, kind person. She is clearly very talented in her knitting abilities. She just grossly missed the personal safety dangers with this one.
Some may fail to see how dangerous it is to provide complete strangers vital information about your precious child. Both parents and manufacturers are so overtaken with the cuteness factor that they are missing the obvious – that they could be serving up their baby, toddler or youngster to child predators on a silver platter!
Ayers on the Side of Caution gives this one a Thumbs Down.
Posting Bus Routes Publicly is Asking for Trouble
I just saw a disturbing post on Facebook that took me to a link to a local newspaper that is published both online and offline. It was three pages of detailed school bus route information. It provided the bus driver’s name as well as exact times and locations where the bus, containing minor children would be. Any time you are time and place predictable, especially when it concerns minor children, you could be making committing a crime by a potential kidnapper or attacker so much easier.
Below is an example of one of the routes published. The article contained the entire school district. I sanitized it a bit as I clearly don’t want to perpetuate this dangerous practice.
XYZ Area Schools bus routes for 2011-12
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The following is a list of XYZ Area Schools’ bus routes for the 2011-12 school year. For more information call 555-3890.
[SPECIFIC SCHOOL ]
Driven by [Specific Bus Driver’s Name] — Bus No. 02C
The bus will leave the bus garage at 6:40 a.m. and travel north on Jebavy to Decker, East on Decker one mile turning around and backtracking. The bus then travels north on Jebavy to Angling Road, east on Angling to Beaune Road, north on Beaune to Ehler and east on Ehler to Jebavy. Then north on Jebavy to Barnhart, west on Barnhart to Sherman, south on Sherman to Shagway and west Shagway to Lincoln. The bus will then turn around and take Shagway back to Jebavy, turning south to Fountain Road, east on Fountain to Sherman, south on Sherman to Mavis, east on Mavis to Jebavy. The bus then turns south on Jebavy to Dewey, west on Dewey to Sherman where it turns around and backtracks Dewey to Jebavy. The bus then travels south on Jebavy picking up children who live on the west side of the road and continues on to the XYZ High School/Middle School complex, ABC, DEF, and GHI elementary schools.
Does anyone else see anything wrong with this practice? If I was a parent whose child rode one of these routes you can bet your bippy I would be on the phone to the school district expressing dissatisfaction over this information being so readily available to the public.
For more information on the dangers of being time and place predictable continuing reading here.
Child Abductions Can Happen at the Beach
Pay attention to prevent abductions at the beach
The snow is finally gone and the temperatures are definitely indicative of beach season. It’s that time of year we enjoy picture perfect weather and relaxing vacations. It’s a time when you can reflect, dream and watch people. Though as a crime avoidance specialist, I’m never fully off the clock; I’m always in domain awareness mode. Unfortunately I’ve witnessed more than a few deadbeat parents at the lake shore.
Typically the term “deadbeat parent” is used to refer to obligor parents who have freely chosen not to be a financially supportive parent in their children’s lives. However in this case, I am using the term to refer to parents who are so engrossed in their own tan at the beach that their children become potential victims of abduction.
Just this week our local news had the following horrific headlines: Deputies Find Sunburned Baby on the Beach. A concerned fellow beach-goer alerted the sheriff’s deputy to the situation. The 34-year old babysitter was out frolicking in the water while the 7-month old baby lie unattended, strapped in a car seat – left to bake on the beach like a piece of bacon.
This irresponsible behavior isn’t unique to my town. On any given sunny day, a sandy beach will look like a group of multicolored ants swarming a sidewalk that contains melted drippings from an ice cream cone. Sun worshipers are everywhere and the shore is filled with the jovial noise of laughter and shrills of delight as children of all ages jump the waves and frolic in the water. It’s the perfect storm for pedophiles and kidnappers.
I’ve watched in horror the ambivalence of grandparents with their noses in books as their young charge was playing solo down at the water’s edge. I’ve witnessed a dad chatting with his buddy while they sat facing the sun (all the better to work on his tan doncha know) oblivious to his elementary aged daughter who was at his back, alone in the water repeatedly whining “dad, dad, dad, dad, you promised to come in and play with me.” And then there was the mother sunning herself with a towel over her face, ear buds in both ears as her young son was at least 75 feet away busy tormenting the seagulls. Continue reading
