Happened to me today. There was this man, and he wasn't exactly following me, but seemed to "hang around" me while I was waiting to pay for a dress I was buying. He kept looking at my daughter (she is 2) and looked suspicious, like a wolf in the sheep pen. I wanted to snatch her up and hold her close, when alot more people came in line with me he buggered (LOL no pun intended) off.
It was just soooo creepy. He had that "Hi, I am your local pedophile" look to him. Was I being paranoid? Don't know but made sure I watched my back on the way to the car, that's for sure.
I believe it's better to be safe than sorry. In our previous neighborhood there was a young man who worked at Albertson's who was mentally challenged. He seemed nice, but to me at least exhibited an unusual interest in our children. If I went in without them he would ask about them by name and want to know how they were. If they were with me, he'd follow us through the store trying to talk to them. Creeped me out. I'm willing to accept that he didn't have anything nefarious in mind, but I would rather be a little paranoid and know for sure that my children are safe rather than seeing them turn up in tomorrow's paper as a sensational story.
The exact same thing happened to me with my twins (girls) when they were around one year old. We (me, my twins and my 3 year old daughter) were at the mall and there were two guys looking at them. Everywhere I went they would turn up. I was really freaked out. As it got later I was afraid to go out to the parking lot because while I was loading one up on the carseat the other would be in the stroller. So I asked a security guard to escort me and thankfully he did.
This past weekend at Disneyland I got a freaky feeling with my baby son. No one was following us or anything but just looking around I thought this was a perfect place to kidnap a child with the parents distracted.
I guess we can never be too careful with our precious babies!
When the guy took off, that was your confirmation... why would he take off?
When my son was young, we were at Walmart and some guy was trying to talk him up over by the lego.. He couldn't see me, I was looking at kids books right around the corner... I was listening to him and when I came around the corner, the guy was so engrossed in his conversation with my son that he didn't notice. My son happened to glance at me in a, "this is okay isn't it Mom?" kinda way and I gave him the "look". That guy took off so fast! And that's when I knew something wasn't right. I alerted the store Manager, and told him where it happened.. They have cameras that tape sections, especially the toy section. He said he would have someone from the police have a look at it.
I agree, go with your gut feeling. You can tell if someone is a little off.... and better safe than sorry... I couldn't care less if I offended anyone, if they went too far with my son, they were told. I'm a very protective mom... a BIG protective mom...
Never question your parental instincts, especially when it comes to strangers looking at your children. Good for you for being so aware, it shows a great deal of love and concern for your children.
