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missing children's day

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We all come in contact with small evidence that it’s happening around our country like Amber alerts or posters on the wall at the post office and nearby liquor store. I’m talking about kidnappings. It all seems too distant and unreal when it’s just another text alert or one of many paper notices buried beneath fliers on a bulletin board. But it is very real. In fact, over 400,000 reports of missing children are made each year. That doesn’t even account for all of the incidents that aren’t reported. Remember that, often, children are kidnapped by their own family members. Since that can complicate matters, the true guardians may not even make a report. But that doesn’t mean that that child isn’t still abducted and terrified. Rather than wait to get that Amber alert, in honor of National Missing Children’s Day, let’s educate ourselves on signs of potential kidnappers.

missing children's day

Source: bojanstory / Getty

New and suspicious church members

Though it’s very sad that someone would take advantage of a religious institution—a place where people should feel safe—to abduct a child, it does happen. If you notice a new member of the church whom you’ve never seen before hanging out long after services and talking to children, keep an eye on the situation. Some kidnappers pose as church members to gain the trust of children, and they know they may be able to snatch a child because parents aren’t as alert here, never assuming someone would do a kidnapping at a church.

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