There's a thing going around facebook again about being wary in areas with big shopping and big parking lots.
One of the comments I got when I shared it was how scary it was reading about sex rings also using young children to make contact with other young children in stores and get them to follow away from parents out of sight. I've actually witnessed this happening in a park on a pretty summer day. A couple of teenage girls followed a toddler around until a tired mom desperately needing to sit and talk with friends felt comfortable enough with it to let them get further and further away, assuming the girls were part of another family in the park. I followed the girls following the toddler at a little distance watching because I could tell the toddler wasn't actually being watched over so much as slowly herded away, like a little cow or sheep. As the child and teens neared the edge of the parking lot and rows of cars, I closed the gap until I was nearly right behind the girls. One of them gave a final look back and was so surprised to see me right behind watching her that she abruptly took off running, and the other girl immediately followed without even looking back, abandoning the toddler, which by now was close enough to touch a car bumper. I got around that kiddo and got it turned around the same way the girls had done, by getting in its way until it naturally turned around and started toddling back toward mommy, and I just followed it back until mommy saw it and picked it up. She smiled at me but never once questioned that a completely different person was following her child now, and the girls were gone.
People who are unaware of how all this works really don't have a clue how surrounded they are all the time, how entrenched our ways of life are in an invisible underground going on all around us. My best friend was abducted from a mall parking lot during college and later found in a room full of other dead girls her age, along with filming equipment. I won't go into details here. I personally know another person whose high school senior age daughter was abducted from a friend's house during a sleepover, and 3 people who went missing from that incident have never been found or heard from again. I live in a puppy mill area that gets far more attention than the amount of people that go missing around here.
I'm not going to say more about it right now, except that once something like this happens within a circle of people you know in real life, your life will change and never be the same again. A person of any age going missing is worse than death, because there is no closure, just a crater sized hole in your lives with no answers.
When I see people applaud pictures of other people rescuing kitties and ducks off a highway, or risking their lives to save a dog, I know the same people applauding those pictures are probably oblivious to very real people they've passed in public who are trained specialists in entrapment, rape torture, reconditioning, and trafficking. Once the worst happens in your own life and your eyes open up, you see it everywhere. It's kind of like working in a big store and not being able to touch someone you know just pulled tags off 10 bras and piled them on under a big sweatshirt. Only security can legally detain, and if it's their day off, there's nothing in the world you can do to stop $500 worth of merch walking out the door. What's worse is when a parent sends a small child in a parka out a door ahead of them when they see you approaching with tags. That's outrageous, you say. Yes, and so is the thought of your own child being trained to lead other children into high dollar porn trafficking.
It's hard to wrap our minds around this kind of stuff until we meet people who've been there. I've been there, right up to the edge of it. I personally know people who made it out. I've also lost someone I loved.
I know we're easily calloused by stuff making the rounds on facebook. At first we sit up, but later it's like flipping through a magazine- seen it, seen it, shared it 3 months ago, seen it, can't believe that one's still going, scrollscrollscroll. And I honestly don't like filling up my own timelines with emotionally angsty stuff, because I've already been through so much angst in my life that I desperately crave distraction. But once in awhile, I need to stop and say something.
It's real. It's all horribly real. You go to school and work with people who've seen it, or been part of it. You walk by people every day who know what it all is. While you blow off a creepy person who might actually save your life because they've been there, you think another well dressed smiling person can be trusted because they are polite and have no clue that they do this for a living and their acting skills could win emmys.
People are always surprised when someone erupts and shoots up a store or a school or something. That person was so nice, we didn't have a clue. Well, there you go, none of us have a clue. We watch TV and fuss about life throwing us curve balls, and we're so wrapped up in the 'feed' of commercialism and taking sides about the news that we completely miss what's going on around us, and worse, we don't want to get involved.
I can't tell you how powerful a good stare down is when you see something suspicious. Sometimes that's all it takes to break off a covert intention, and suddenly people turn and walk away. It's instinct to look away. Wanna be a superhero? Don't look away. Lock your stare on and make someone nervous. You just might save a life and a whole family from a horrific sadness. If you feel especially brave and have a little extra time, follow that oddness around a store and see if it starts to happen again, and casually get in the way. Once they catch on someone might know what's up, they abruptly leave the store. I've seen people suddenly just walk out the doors without a single purchase after lurking and loitering behind kids pretending like they're shopping for half an hour. Ever see an abandoned partly filled cart sitting around? Might be a marker that someone scored and made it out the door with a kid. That'll creep you out now next time you see an abandoned cart just sitting in an aisle.
Use the Force, guys. Lock eyes with evil and get that Force choke on.
