Last story of the night. Gonna be hard to talk what we've done so far, but I think we're going to go back to the theme here of the dad thing what we said earlier. Oh yes, I've titled this flea market kidnapping attempt. This happened to me when I was about four years old, when I was still living with my family in San Diego, California. It was a summer morning, and it was customary for my family on the weekends. We decided we'd go to the flea market to do some shopping right after we had breakfast at our favorite pancake place. Before I share my account of what happened on this day, I need to make two things clear. First, one is that I'm a female, and even though I'm Caucasian, having very curly black hair, which often make people think I'm Hispanic or perhaps biracial. And secondly, there were two things that always, and I mean always, made my father distracted whenever we'd go out. Women and tools. On the day in discussion, my father was looking for some specific tool he needed to work on a project for a client. My heavily pregnant mother had decided it was time to buy the last item she needed for the baby because she could go into emergency labor any moment. My mother and my eight year old brother stayed behind to check out the baby stuff in one of the aisles closest to the food court, which is right in the middle of the place. This left me in the care of my father. My father took me with him to check the tool stand that was located on the opposite side, opposite end of the row, as expected, and despite my mother warning him several times that morning not to let go of my hand as he'd done the previous week when I got lost inside a department store because he got distracted as we were approaching the area where the tools were. He let go of my hand as soon as a young lady asked him if she could help him with anything. He pointed out to a toolbox that had caught his eye and went around the table as she offered to open it up so he could check out the tools inside. Well, I felt bored just standing there. I turned around to see if my mother was still checking the baby items, thinking perhaps I could go with her instead of staying here with my father looking at all this boring stuff. I couldn't see her or my brother anywhere, though, so I stood in that same spot. I was told the week before to stay put so it'd be easier to find me if my father lost track of me again. As more and more time dragged on without my father checking up on me, I soon realized he probably was not going to come back. I looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen. The young lady who had helped him before was still there, but now she was talking to another customer, not him. Still, though, I waited for a bit longer, thinking perhaps he had just gone to the nearby aisle to check out any of the other tools kept around there. I was feeling increasingly scared at this point, so I took a few steps into the aisle and called out for my father. He did not reply, so it seemed he wasn't there anymore. At this point, the only thing I could assume was he'd forgotten all about me again and left me behind. I walked back to the area where my mother and brother had been, but they were no longer there either. I began to wander around looking for anybody, but I couldn't see them in any of the aisles I passed through and by to make things even worse. That day, the market was absolutely packed, so it was hard to see anything being a little kid with all the adults towering above me. To this day, I don't know how I managed to stay calm. I find my way to the side entrance where my father had parked the car. Before I continue with the story, I'll say that even though I'm a girl, my parents often dressed me and closed it no longer fit my older brother. We were kind of poor, and it was cheaper to have their daughter just wear their eldest son's clothes instead of getting new one. That day, I was wearing some denim overalls, a white T shirt with yellow lines on the sleeves, and a pair of brown Oxfords. Due to my hair being curly uncapta in short, I was often mistaken for a boy. I was waiting by the entrance to watching the people that were leaving, when a Hispanic woman in her thirties or forties made a bee line straight towards me. She began to act overly dramatic, calling to me in this annoying sweet voice. She tried to pull me into her arms and kiss me a couple of times on the forehead, but I turned away and clung to a metal pole that was behind me. I've never really been a people person, so touchy Philly people always make me feel uneasy. Another thing that worth mentioning is that whenever I feel scared or threatened, I immediately go into fight mode. Of course, at that moment, I was feeling extremely scared by this woman's antics. I began to slap and push her away from me and scream telling her don't touch me. She started trying to pick me up. People stop and stared, but did not but did nothing to help stop her or help me. She turned to them and told them and broken English. Basically, she told them that I was just throwing a fit or something along those lines. Apparently, hearing that was enough for everybody to just keep on walking by. At this point, I was sure no one would take the time to help me, which made me think I had to get out of this on my When I began to act more aggressive, screaming louder, trying to get any attention, the woman then yanked me from the pole so hard my arms let go. She tried to pull me towards a parking lot. This is when I began to bite and kick while screaming for my mother and father as loudly as I could. This is when an elderly couple rushed up to me. Elderly woman said, darling, are you all right? What's the matter? I told the couple that this woman was not my mother and she wanted to take me somewhere I did not want to go. The old man picked me up as the old lady left to call security. The woman kept trying to pull me by my clothes and legs, but the man was much stronger than her. Two younger men finally walked over and restrained the woman. I remember the old man wearing a cap with an eagle and flags on it. I asked him what they meant. He began to tell me about it to distract me while ignoring that crazy woman who was still screaming after me like a bansheet. He was telling me all about the medals he received during the war. Suddenly I heard my mother calling out to me, almost out of breath. I saw her rushing over to us, dragging my older brother along. The elderly man put me down and explained the entire situation to her. It took my father even longer to show up popping up out of nowhere? Why does a ghost? When he saw the police talking to my mother and the elderly couple, my mother was of course furious and gave him quite a earful for being an irresponsible head. My parents thanked the couple and the officers for their help, and we left the flea market immediately. While leaving, I saw the crazy hispanic woman was being put into a patrol car and taken into custody. I'm not sure what happened to her after that. I later found out the elderly couple's last name was Ralph. I don't know how things would have ended if they decided to walk on by and not help me, Like I said, another Father of the Year award here, Yeah, that's west. I don't know. I have like three daughters, right, so I'm immediately thanking Mike. Who does that? I mean, it could easily happen, right, but like to do a week after week? You're going to hell, dude? Yez. Yeah, that's rough. And that's also like one of those really real scary things that could happen. We don't know what was going on with this person. You know, there are any number of horrible things that could be happening besides simple light dementia. We don't know mentioned it was a slightly older Hispanic one thirties or forties. You know, the person was four when this happened. So you know, I don't know what they're right, how detail their memory is. But so she did identify the elderly couple that helped her, so I guess they weren't quite that old. The person that old. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, there are any number of things what could have been going on there, and all though horrible, I'm not gonna lie. Before I realized the gravity of the situation that the story was going to be, I laughed at first when you said that, yeah, it was going to be. It was talking about flea market and you know, being the ductor to the flea market because you told us about your flea market experiences. I was like, it's a story about you. Oh, oh the Koy Creek place. Yeah, they talk about Koy Creek, Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Then when you started reading this off, I was like, oh my god, it's terrible. This is what happened to me. No, and this this guy, I'm not sure which one is worse, this one or the camping one they're putting bad uh electful parent. Uh, I know it's the worse to lead your kid all alone with nobody around, or to leave with a bunch of people around. You know, I'm trying to think of how this is worded here. That got me, gosh, where is this part? I left? Love this part here. There were two things that always, and when I mean always, made my father distracted whenever we'd go out, women and tools. That's uh, that's rough. It's rough to know that a younger age too, those two things would distract your dad. Yeah, that's really messed up. So we've all been to flea markets and the one that you referenced our flea Marko was outside. This seemed to be like an inside one. Yeah, we've all been to those, like the big inside area where they have different aisles and stands and stuff. So that's what I'm picturing in my head. Which when you're a little kid, that little with a bunch of tall adults around, I can definitely see where it would be you'd get lost easily, especially if a parent wasn't there guiding you. But yeah, definitely, Yeah, there have been to a few uh indoor flea markets that are really kind of mazes onto themselves. You really won't know where you are if you especially if you're shorter. Yeah, so I could definitely see that being pretty terrifying. Do you think it was Do you think her intent was the kidnapper? I believe so. Yeah. Yeah, it seemed like she was definitely trying to make it seem like that she was a parent or possibly grandparent, Yeah, going to take her god knows what for. We've all been in a store when you see a kid throwing a fit, yeah, right, and this really makes you think twice about how you handle it. Yeah, it does. I know what she's talking about. Like the lady just brush it off, right, like, oh, just throwing a fit, you know whatever, blah blah blah, and people kept walking by. It's always hard to say, right, you never know. I mean, like I was talking about the other day, you walk past like several murders in your life spent. And he said you will walk past people capable of horrible things and not realize it, and that it's truly terrifying. Yeah. I assue what people said here, the dad's of this episode. Somebody else said they respect to the father. I don't know when they said that, but several minutes later then they said, okay, well I do not respect the father. Maybe it was the tools that they went along with that on this, Yeah, probably. Yeah. Scariest thing in the world aren't ghosts or goblins, it's other humans. Yeah, I'm with you. I think the thing that sticks out to me is you could tell this definitely traumatize them. Yeah, long lasting effect on them, which I mean, I get it, it would be on me too, would be Yeah, something that would definitely stick with the rest of your life. It's terrible. Jeff Townsend media seesy good night, And the question is do I stay here? Will you be back? Are you gonna come back? Will you be back? Are you coming back?
