Mom gets an uneasy feeling. About a couple seconds later, they abduct her daughter. It is not unusual that people start random conversations with strangers at grocery stores. The same happened with Amanda Forsakowski, who was a resident of Longview, Texas, where she lives with her husband and four children. Her husband, Aaron, owns a local carpet cleaning business, and she herself is involved with a local Church.
Like all families, the four Shakowskis are also extremely protective of their children. Back in 2016, Amanda was off to run her daily errands with her two yearold daughter. She visited her local grocery store in the afternoon. Like their usual visits, they bought the grocery, but as they reached the checkout counter, their trip took an unusual turn, something that Amanda was not expecting at all.
At the checkout counter, Amanda and her daughter came across a couple who took an immediate interest in Amanda’s two year old.
They mentioned how adorable the little girl was and also inquired about her age again and again, which seemed a little odd to Amanda. However, she believed that the repetition was caused by the language barrier between the couple and herself. As the couple seemed to be East Indians, things again took a turn and this time it was even more strange.
According to one of Amanda’s social media handles, the woman’s demeanor started to change and her physical proximity to the little girl started to alarm Amanda. She even went ahead and asked if she could hold the girl.
However, her daughter was so close to the woman that before she knew it, the woman was already holding her in her arms. The woman began to take steps away from the mother while the mother tried to take hold of her daughter to make sure she was in a safe place. What happened next? Was Amanda able to get her daughter back? Was the woman actually up to no good?
What the woman said next sent shivers down Amanda’s spine. She asked the little girl to say goodbye to Mama. It was at this moment that Amanda couldn’t take it anymore. She got scared for the wellbeing of her little girl and immediately made sure that she was not with a strange woman anymore. This was not the only thing that seemed strange that day.
A white man had watched her every move and was not ready to take his eye off her. She made sure she held her daughter close and looked confident. She even alarmed the cashier and inquired about their security. Later, when she took it up on the Internet, the only thing she could come up with was human trafficking. She alarmed the local police, who, after investigating, claimed that the event was an isolated one.
However, they asked parents to be vigilant and stay alert, making sure that none of these predators are able to go ahead with their plans. According to Amanda, the woman also tried to distract her from her daughter, which again points in the same direction ie trafficking. Whether the couple was actually into trafficking or not is not known.
After going through the CCTV footage, authorities concluded that this was not an incident of attempted kidnapping. However, Amanda’s post was successfully making the authorities and the locals alert as according to the data collected by the national human Trafficking Texas is America’s second biggest trafficking state.
Amanda’s little girl may or may not have been in danger but it does not hurt anyone to be vigilant and stay alert when it comes to their children’s safety. This incident is not only a lesson for parents but also for the other people who may stay alert to their surroundings.
Now one must keep an eye on what happens around them as it may help to save somebody, especially children, from getting exploited or kidnapped. Only because Amanda was well aware and careful she was able to protect her daughter, alert the authorities and make other people aware of what can happen to young children if they are not careful enough. Amanda and her daughter are safe but many children and in the world might not be it is important to be aware of what’s happening around us.