We’ve all heard the stranger danger horror stories. Each one literally makes me consider whether or not it’s safe to go anywhere these days—even our own backyards.
A father from La Porte County, Indiana, is warning parents this week after a split-second away from his son nearly changed the future of his family.
Ron Kraus had been outside with his almost-year-old son when a man emerged from a vehicle that had been parked at the end of his driveway. The stranger had been parked across the street for about 10 minutes before parking his car at the end of Ron’s drive, then walking up to the house.
He explained that his car was having radiator issues, and asked Ron if he could spare him a drink of water.
Setting his son in a red wagon, just feet away from the glass door where he had a case of bottled water, Ron turned his back for hardly a second. That’s when the suspect swooped up baby Ryker and took off running, stuffing the child into a duffel bag in the process.
“I was able to get a hit in on him and at the time I thought he was unconscious,” Ron said. “My son fell on the ground I checked to see that he was okay and rushed him in the house.”
The suspect got away before Ron was able to chase after him, but police are investigating what they call a “rare” situation further—saying it’s not often that someone scopes the situation, approaches the parent and distracts them, then captures the child. It’s more common to lure a child without the abductor drawing attention to themselves.
Of course, as Ron’s experience proves: Stranger things have happened.
Now he wants other parents to know the dangers he never realized he should be watching for. After all, it’s not like he left his son outside while he went in and used the bathroom or something. He literally left him feet away from where he had to go to get a bottle of water.
“For a guy just to come up and try to take my son at my house, in my yard…just take him right in front of me and run off, I mean he’s going to try it somewhere else and may be be more successful,” Ron said. “It’s a pretty scary thought.”
