We live in a sick world!

[Loafster]

Yesterday, I found out that a 12 year old boy was walking home from school. As he was crossing through a gas station, a van came through and the driver started talking to him and eventually tried to get him in the van. The boy was smart enough to scream and ran into a store across the street. The driver took off. The store called the cops and his parents. The boy is in the same grade as my oldest son and lives only 2 houses away from my parents who watch our boys for us. I feel terrible for this little boy. Thank God he was able to get away.
This morning I found out that someone called a bomb scare at a local middle school yesterday. Luckily, it turned out to be a hoax but it scared the hell out of everyone there.
It makes me so sad that our kids aren't safe anywhere.

[MWC]

I'm glad the boy is okay. He did the smart thing.

But kids have been accosted by strange people in cars for a long, long time. I'm 46 and I remember having it drummed into my head to run away from anybody who slowed their car down near me. That doesn't make what happened right, or unimportant -- but it's nothing new, and all you can do is train, train, train your kids to keep those safety tips in mind.

I can't answer to the bomb hoax thing. Sounds like a jerky kid wanted to get out of finals or something.

Don't let the bad things get you down. Celebrate that the boy is okay!

[Thor Henning]

That boy was smart. Glad he did ok.

[cyndyj1]

Originally Posted by Loafster

Yesterday, I found out that a 12 year old boy was walking home from school. As he was crossing through a gas station, a van came through and the driver started talking to him and eventually tried to get him in the van. The boy was smart enough to scream and ran into a store across the street. The driver took off. The store called the cops and his parents. The boy is in the same grade as my oldest son and lives only 2 houses away from my parents who watch our boys for us. I feel terrible for this little boy. Thank God he was able to get away.
This morning I found out that someone called a bomb scare at a local middle school yesterday. Luckily, it turned out to be a hoax but it scared the hell out of everyone there.
It makes me so sad that our kids aren't safe anywhere.

That has to be very scary for you, with it happening right in your neighborhood - one of the reasons I left LA after I had children.
As to the bomb scare, we had those all through high school (1969 - 1972 - hate to admit it). They've been going on forever. Yes, we live in a sick world - but it's always been that way. Appreciate the good (hugely) and tolerate as best you can the sickness...

[Loafster]

Thank God he is okay. It could have been much worse. It's just scary for the kids because (I forgot to mention this part) this is the 3 attempt in a one mile radius in the past 2 months. I don't know if this guy matches the description of the other 2 attempts.

[Seakony]

Maybe not so sick but evil.
Dutch shock over gay AIDS rape gang
by Alix Rijckaert Thu May 31, 1:00 PM ET


THE HAGUE (AFP) - A gay gang that allegedly raped victims lured on the Internet, drugged them and infected them with the virus has shocked the Netherlands and raised questions over its liberal sex culture.





Health Minister Ab Klink on Thursday called the case "horrible", as the press splashed the news across its front pages.
The matter came to light Wednesday, when police said they had arrested three seropositive homosexual men two weeks ago after four victims, men aged 25 to 50, accused them of rape and premeditated bodily harm.
Ronald Zwarter, the police chief in the northern town of Groningen, where the alleged crimes took place, said two of those arrested, a couple aged 48 and 33, had confessed.
"Their stated motive was that it excited them -- and also that, the more infected people there were, the better their chances of unprotected sex," he said.
"They considered unprotected relations to be 'pure'."
A fourth man who allegedly supplied the three suspects with several litres of the date-rape drug GHB and ecstasy tablets was also arrested.
The gang risks up to 16 years in prison.
According to police and prosecutors, eight more victims have come forward since the case was publicised.
Officials said the three seropositive men invited gays contacted on the Internet to private homosexual orgies.
When the victims turned up, they were allegedly given ecstasy and GBH (which is undetectable when mixed in drinks), leaving them helpless and, in some cases, with no memory of what happened.
The three suspects -- one of whom is a male nurse -- were said to have raped the men, and even injected some of them with a mix of their contaminated blood.
The case has deeply unsettled the Netherlands, and caused it to cast a hard look at its easygoing views on sex, with some figures suggesting that frequent homosexual orgies posed a public health risk.
"That homos organise orgies is nothing new, but this is something else. This is unimaginable," said Frank van Dalen, the president of a gay rights group called COC.
He stressed that the illegal use of GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid) -- known on the street by such nicknames as "Easy Lay, "Gay Home Boy" and "Liquid Ecstasy" -- also posed a danger in heterosexual circles.
Said Henk Krol, the editor of a homosexual magazine titled Gaykrant: "These people were drugged, it's therefore rape, pure and simple. It's shameful, disgusting and terrifying. Those who did this are crazy."
Health officials pointed to a recent rise in the number of HIV infections in Groningen -- from 14 in 2005 to 25 last year, out of the town's total population of 185,000 -- as significant.
"This doesn't mean that the rise is entirely explained by the orgies... but it's probable that part of the rise has been caused by them," Marco Ter Harmsel, of Grongingen's municipal health service, told the Dutch newspaper DRC

[JudyBluEyes]

Originally Posted by cyndyj1

That has to be very scary for you, with it happening right in your neighborhood - one of the reasons I left LA after I had children.
As to the bomb scare, we had those all through high school (1969 - 1972 - hate to admit it). They've been going on forever. Yes, we live in a sick world - but it's always been that way. Appreciate the good (hugely) and tolerate as best you can the sickness...

I was in high school same time as you!! Seemed to be a thing to do then... We had so many bomb scares it got to be a joke!!! But I grew up in San Francisco, and we had it drilled into our heads form day one... way back in the 60s! Then we moved to the suburbs and it wasn't all that different, I just had to pass on the same warnings to my kids... btw, now (well for the next couple of week anyway ) I live in the same town that Polly Klaus was kidnapped from!

[Seakony]

I was in high school too at the same time. We never got a bomb threat.

[cyndyj1]

Maybe it was a California thing, Judy was in No Cal, I was in So Cal (South Pasadena)....

[Andiline]

The same thing happened to one of my boss's sons last year in a little villagenear Zurich in Switzerland when he was on his way home from kindergarden. His son ran away screaming because he was trained well....

Unfortunately these things happen all the time and everywhere.

[Seakony]

That stuff happens everyday.....It happened to me...45 years ago...nothing really new. Off with their Nuts

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Seakony

That stuff happens everyday.....It happened to me...45 years ago...nothing really new. Off with their Nuts