Update: The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office gave the following update following the original alert.
“After conducting numerous follow up interviews, detectives discovered inconsistencies in the child’s story of the kidnapping attempt,” the office stated.
“Therefore, detectives do not see a credible threat and have canceled their search for the aforementioned suspect and vehicle.”
——-original story below
An 8-year-old boy in California escaped after he was kidnapped outside of his house.
The boy, who has not been publicly identified, was playing by himself near his house in Fresno County on Jan. 2, when a man grabbed him from behind, covered his eyes, picked him up, and began running.
The man threw the boy in the back of a white pick-up truck and lowered the cover.
The truck stopped a short time later and the boy decided to try and escape, so he pushed open the bed cover and jumped out of the truck as the vehicle moved away.
“He began to run the opposite direction and looked back to see the truck driving away from him. It does not appear the driver knew the boy had escaped. The boy was able to recognize where he was and found his way back home. Once there, he told his mom everything he had just experienced,” according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
“We’re lucky we’re not looking for a missing child,” Tony Botti of the sheriff’s office told KFSN.
The abduction took place in the middle of the afternoon, officials said.
The boy’s mother then tried searching the area for a pickup truck that matched the description her son gave her but could not locate the vehicle. She called the sheriff’s office the next day to make a report.
Detectives are looking for leads in the case and have asked anyone who has surveillance cameras along the following roads to contact them: E. Floral, S. Peach, E. Nebraska, E. Mountain View, and S. Clovis Avenues.
Anyone with information should contact the Fresno sheriff at (559) 600-3111. You may also contact Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-7867 or through the Crime Stoppers website.
***UPDATE*** After conducting numerous follow up interviews, detectives discovered inconsistencies in the child's story…
Kidnappings and Missing Children
The number of reported missing children significantly decreased in recent years, according to a report by the Department of Justice (pdf) in 2017. Reported missing children dropped from 6.5 per 1,000 children in 1999 to 3.1 per 1,000 in 2013.
Missing children typically fall into five categories: kidnapped by a family member, abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator, runaways, those who got lost, stranded, or injured, or those who went missing due to benign reasons, such as misunderstandings, according to the report researchers.
Department of Justice researchers said in a separate report (pdf) published in 2016 that there were an estimated 105 children nationwide that were victims of stereotypical kidnappings, a number that was virtually the same as 1997.
“Most kidnappings involved the use of force or threats, and about three in five victims were sexually assaulted, abused, or exploited, the researchers said.
Stereotypical kidnappings are defined as abductions in which a slight acquaintance or stranger moves a child at least 20 feet or holds the child at least 1 hour. Most victims were girls aged 12 to 17 and most perpetrators were men aged 18 to 35.
However, most abductions that take place are by a family member of the abducted.
According to the Polly Klaas Foundation, approximately 200,000 children are kidnapped each year by a family member. Child custody experts say that people kidnap their own children to force a reconciliation or continued interaction with the other, left-behind parent; to spite or punish the other parent; from fear of losing custody or visitation rights.
In rare cases, the kidnapping may occur to protect a child from a parent who is believed to be abusing the child. Common warnings signs include the other parent threatening abduction, suspected abuse, or paranoid delusion.
