Thwarted Kidnapping
Oh yeah, did I mention how we helped thwart a kidnapping this summer? No? Well I meant to so I will do that now. I figure it will help some of the writers out there at least.
Well, much like the police line-up thing, it isn't like what you see on television. (And if I didn't mention THAT, well, they just bring a photocopy of the pictures of several likely suspects on a sheet of paper and have you point.) So what happened?
Husband's cousin's new wife has been divorced and has a couple of kids. They are her pride and joy. And in the summer her ex-husband gets a 6 week visitation with them. She gets to talk to them on the phone each night and she keeps a log book of anything unusual.
She didn't lose it when she looked up the address the father gave her on the web and found it went to a school parking lot...which is kidnapping grounds right there since they OBVIOUSLY were NOT living at the address given. She did not lose it when 5 weeks in she found out that one of the kids had been vomiting daily for over 4 weeks. (But kid didn't mention this because he didn't want her to worry and he always felt better after he threw up.) She didn't lose it when she found out that the ex-husband and girlfriend were having one of the boys babysit the girlfriend's other kids and that they had to haul water from a laundromat across the street! So when she did lose it I knew it was really bad.
We were about 2 days away from the pick-up date when the ex-husband called and said, "Oh, I talked to the police and they said it was fine for me to just keep the kids". The likelihood that THIS man voluntarily spoke to any police officer is nil. And the odds that a police officer would even suggest going against an arrangement made by a judge in court is laughable. Except that the ex-husband was making his move to keep the kids.
Now, the ex-husband was a "nice guy" right up until they got married. At which point he decided that 5-finger discounting was easier than working. However, the only things he knew about computers he learned from his ex-wife. And she is quite clever with them. So using a picture he posted of him in the front yard of the ACTUAL house they were staying at and the clues about hauling water from a laundromat across the street she used Google Earth to find the one laundromat in the small town and then matched up the houses to the one in the picture. So she did not have an address for him but she darn well knew where he was.
We went over as soon as we were able and they were getting done talking to the REAL local police down there. Officers can not advise people in any official capacity. But when they asked what they should do, he told them on a personal level, if it was him, he'd already be half way down there. And that was good enough for us. So the plan was to get down there first thing in the morning before they really woke up and scoop up the kids with a minimum of fuss.
So I and my husband's main role were as drivers. The cousin was exhausted after a long day at work, and you can imagine the state of his wife. So we did most of the driving down. Some of it was through bad weather and scary mountain areas. But we survived and arrived intact about 7am our time and 6am local time.
The ex-wife called the local police upon our arrival and we did our best to keep the vehicle out of site as the ex-husband and some of his family would recognize it if they saw it. The officer let us know that he needed the permission of a judge to go in on our behalf and get the kids for us. Mind you, the ex-husband is known for a bad temper and we wanted to avoid an altercation that could put people, especially the kids, at risk of physical harm. The officer let us know that the local courthouse opened at 8am. That's pretty good, really. So we went to a local fast-food joint all geared up for the breakfast rush and waited with crackling nerves.
Eight o'clock local time rolls around and the pair disappear into the courthouse as my husband and I grab a nap in the vehicle after the all-night driving. We are woken up maybe an hour later with news that this courthouse can not help us. We have to drive to the one that issued the divorce-which is in another state!
So off we go, it's now between 9am and 10am. The sun is shining, the day is getting hot, and our plan to snag the kids in the early am is gone. Now we have to worry that he might run. We have no idea of what his plans are but the officer let us know the house that she was able to show him was a transient house. No one lived there for more than a couple of months. So we drove on grimly hoping he wouldn't flee.
We arrived a couple of hours later at the other courthouse. People were very nice but no one could help us. They could not even advise on a personal level since they were not lawyers. We severely tie up the hands of the only people who 'know the system'! But they did tell the ex-wife that the letter she had prepared was not going to be accepted as a plea. The staffer warned it was too long. Seems it has to be in a more bullet-points format. But the letter could be attached to the proper one. And she 'happened' to have one that WAS in the right format that the ex-wife got to see briefly so she had a good idea how to layout her own.
She was then led into a small records room so she could work in quiet while we and the cousin got to warm a bench. Literally. Ever see a guy who actually likes kids having to sit on his hands when he'd like to throttle someone who desperately deserves it? Not pretty. Nor was there enough room for him to be in the records room as well as it really could only seat 2 and they needed the other spot open in case someone needed it for its intended purpose.
So somewhere around an hour later all is sorted and the extra diagrams, and pictures with numbers and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one were added to copies of log entries and the long letter as additional evidence and we were put on the docket.
We waited in the courtroom for our case. The ex-wife gave her testimony. Seems he tried to snatch the kids the year before and failed and that was why she learned to DO the log book stuff. (News to us! But again, the trip was one long blur of tension, and honestly, she does NOT speak ill of the father in front of the kids. This woman should go for saint-hood.) But I digress.
The judge said that the number of attachments was rather long. And her heart sagged (I later learned) at those words because it usually means the judge is displeased. But he was trying to puzzle out the photocopied maps and she let him know she had a color copy with her if he wanted to see it. He was interested in the color copy and at last made his judgment.
Given the evidence and the testimony he believed there was reasonable evidence that the ex-husband may try to flee the area. So he made the court order that the judgment would be ex-parintis (I believe) which meant without the other party present to offer their side of the testimony, and in-extremis which meant the situation was dire enough that it warranted immediate and swift action. We hoped he would allow us to have the local police get the kids for us. The officer had let her know the wording HE needed to do this. But that isn't what we got.
The judge said that if the kids were found anywhere in the entire STATE where they were supposed to currently be located, she was to present a copy to ANY officer in the area and they were to immediately retrieve the children and bring them to her. And that we were all to be back in about 2 weeks or a month for him to make a final determination about the parental rights of both parties. We COULD NOT have gotten a better judgment! Relief swept off of us! Total time in this court to receive this judgment: 2 hours. That really is amazingly fast. But it is now well afternoon and we have a good 2 hours to get back to the other state. The ex-husband could be long-gone to some other relative's house or friend's house!
So we drive back again, nerves a-crackling, praying we aren't too late. We are met by the local police upon our arrival they set us up across the street so we can see but be out of the way of direct conflict. I started filming with my camera in case something really bad happened so we would have evidence for the court. The police officer went up and knocked and a rather surprised woman (the new girlfriend) answered. We saw the girlfriends 2 younger kids but only one of the ex-wife's. And the ex-husband's vehicle was gone. The officer tried to talk to the woman but she was adamant that she wasn't handing over the kids without the ex-husband. And she was very careful not to let the officer in. He did get a look about the immediate rooms from the screen door.
The ex-husband arrived and the boy was not with him. It turns out he was lying down with a headache after vomiting. So suddenly, the ex-husband was very cooperative and the boys were brought to our vehicle and the ex-husband wanted to have dinner with them before they left so suddenly. The ex-wife ixnayed that but agreed to have them all go to a local ice-cream shop (which would be a lot shorter). I thought this was a bit too nice, but she was probably doing it for the kids sake since they had enough trauma in their young lives. Honestly, it was done so well that the kids had no idea what kind of terror we'd been going through and only vaguely wondered why a police officer had come along. (For my part, I went for a long walk in search of butterflies to get pictures of during the ice cream social. I really did not want to socialize with the guy.)
Aftermath: The one kid who was vomiting was not feeling well on the trip back. I gave him some peptobismol pills and made him drink water. He wasn't interested in dinner but started to perk up by breakfast. Seems that the ex-husband fed them almost exclusively Suzy-Q cakes, candy and Mountain Dew all summer-in 101 Fahrenheit weather! The kids are a bit young to know about nutrition, so being fed all the junk food they wanted was likely the culprit although we are not certain. They are both doing better and are eating healthy and sensibly again.
The second court date was as bad as the first was good. The judge decided to change nothing, so the ex-husband may try this again next year. And that's how a real-life kidnapping case goes. I hope it helps some of you authors out there. Laters.
Well, much like the police line-up thing, it isn't like what you see on television. (And if I didn't mention THAT, well, they just bring a photocopy of the pictures of several likely suspects on a sheet of paper and have you point.) So what happened?
Husband's cousin's new wife has been divorced and has a couple of kids. They are her pride and joy. And in the summer her ex-husband gets a 6 week visitation with them. She gets to talk to them on the phone each night and she keeps a log book of anything unusual.
She didn't lose it when she looked up the address the father gave her on the web and found it went to a school parking lot...which is kidnapping grounds right there since they OBVIOUSLY were NOT living at the address given. She did not lose it when 5 weeks in she found out that one of the kids had been vomiting daily for over 4 weeks. (But kid didn't mention this because he didn't want her to worry and he always felt better after he threw up.) She didn't lose it when she found out that the ex-husband and girlfriend were having one of the boys babysit the girlfriend's other kids and that they had to haul water from a laundromat across the street! So when she did lose it I knew it was really bad.
We were about 2 days away from the pick-up date when the ex-husband called and said, "Oh, I talked to the police and they said it was fine for me to just keep the kids". The likelihood that THIS man voluntarily spoke to any police officer is nil. And the odds that a police officer would even suggest going against an arrangement made by a judge in court is laughable. Except that the ex-husband was making his move to keep the kids.
Now, the ex-husband was a "nice guy" right up until they got married. At which point he decided that 5-finger discounting was easier than working. However, the only things he knew about computers he learned from his ex-wife. And she is quite clever with them. So using a picture he posted of him in the front yard of the ACTUAL house they were staying at and the clues about hauling water from a laundromat across the street she used Google Earth to find the one laundromat in the small town and then matched up the houses to the one in the picture. So she did not have an address for him but she darn well knew where he was.
We went over as soon as we were able and they were getting done talking to the REAL local police down there. Officers can not advise people in any official capacity. But when they asked what they should do, he told them on a personal level, if it was him, he'd already be half way down there. And that was good enough for us. So the plan was to get down there first thing in the morning before they really woke up and scoop up the kids with a minimum of fuss.
So I and my husband's main role were as drivers. The cousin was exhausted after a long day at work, and you can imagine the state of his wife. So we did most of the driving down. Some of it was through bad weather and scary mountain areas. But we survived and arrived intact about 7am our time and 6am local time.
The ex-wife called the local police upon our arrival and we did our best to keep the vehicle out of site as the ex-husband and some of his family would recognize it if they saw it. The officer let us know that he needed the permission of a judge to go in on our behalf and get the kids for us. Mind you, the ex-husband is known for a bad temper and we wanted to avoid an altercation that could put people, especially the kids, at risk of physical harm. The officer let us know that the local courthouse opened at 8am. That's pretty good, really. So we went to a local fast-food joint all geared up for the breakfast rush and waited with crackling nerves.
Eight o'clock local time rolls around and the pair disappear into the courthouse as my husband and I grab a nap in the vehicle after the all-night driving. We are woken up maybe an hour later with news that this courthouse can not help us. We have to drive to the one that issued the divorce-which is in another state!
So off we go, it's now between 9am and 10am. The sun is shining, the day is getting hot, and our plan to snag the kids in the early am is gone. Now we have to worry that he might run. We have no idea of what his plans are but the officer let us know the house that she was able to show him was a transient house. No one lived there for more than a couple of months. So we drove on grimly hoping he wouldn't flee.
We arrived a couple of hours later at the other courthouse. People were very nice but no one could help us. They could not even advise on a personal level since they were not lawyers. We severely tie up the hands of the only people who 'know the system'! But they did tell the ex-wife that the letter she had prepared was not going to be accepted as a plea. The staffer warned it was too long. Seems it has to be in a more bullet-points format. But the letter could be attached to the proper one. And she 'happened' to have one that WAS in the right format that the ex-wife got to see briefly so she had a good idea how to layout her own.
She was then led into a small records room so she could work in quiet while we and the cousin got to warm a bench. Literally. Ever see a guy who actually likes kids having to sit on his hands when he'd like to throttle someone who desperately deserves it? Not pretty. Nor was there enough room for him to be in the records room as well as it really could only seat 2 and they needed the other spot open in case someone needed it for its intended purpose.
So somewhere around an hour later all is sorted and the extra diagrams, and pictures with numbers and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one were added to copies of log entries and the long letter as additional evidence and we were put on the docket.
We waited in the courtroom for our case. The ex-wife gave her testimony. Seems he tried to snatch the kids the year before and failed and that was why she learned to DO the log book stuff. (News to us! But again, the trip was one long blur of tension, and honestly, she does NOT speak ill of the father in front of the kids. This woman should go for saint-hood.) But I digress.
The judge said that the number of attachments was rather long. And her heart sagged (I later learned) at those words because it usually means the judge is displeased. But he was trying to puzzle out the photocopied maps and she let him know she had a color copy with her if he wanted to see it. He was interested in the color copy and at last made his judgment.
Given the evidence and the testimony he believed there was reasonable evidence that the ex-husband may try to flee the area. So he made the court order that the judgment would be ex-parintis (I believe) which meant without the other party present to offer their side of the testimony, and in-extremis which meant the situation was dire enough that it warranted immediate and swift action. We hoped he would allow us to have the local police get the kids for us. The officer had let her know the wording HE needed to do this. But that isn't what we got.
The judge said that if the kids were found anywhere in the entire STATE where they were supposed to currently be located, she was to present a copy to ANY officer in the area and they were to immediately retrieve the children and bring them to her. And that we were all to be back in about 2 weeks or a month for him to make a final determination about the parental rights of both parties. We COULD NOT have gotten a better judgment! Relief swept off of us! Total time in this court to receive this judgment: 2 hours. That really is amazingly fast. But it is now well afternoon and we have a good 2 hours to get back to the other state. The ex-husband could be long-gone to some other relative's house or friend's house!
So we drive back again, nerves a-crackling, praying we aren't too late. We are met by the local police upon our arrival they set us up across the street so we can see but be out of the way of direct conflict. I started filming with my camera in case something really bad happened so we would have evidence for the court. The police officer went up and knocked and a rather surprised woman (the new girlfriend) answered. We saw the girlfriends 2 younger kids but only one of the ex-wife's. And the ex-husband's vehicle was gone. The officer tried to talk to the woman but she was adamant that she wasn't handing over the kids without the ex-husband. And she was very careful not to let the officer in. He did get a look about the immediate rooms from the screen door.
The ex-husband arrived and the boy was not with him. It turns out he was lying down with a headache after vomiting. So suddenly, the ex-husband was very cooperative and the boys were brought to our vehicle and the ex-husband wanted to have dinner with them before they left so suddenly. The ex-wife ixnayed that but agreed to have them all go to a local ice-cream shop (which would be a lot shorter). I thought this was a bit too nice, but she was probably doing it for the kids sake since they had enough trauma in their young lives. Honestly, it was done so well that the kids had no idea what kind of terror we'd been going through and only vaguely wondered why a police officer had come along. (For my part, I went for a long walk in search of butterflies to get pictures of during the ice cream social. I really did not want to socialize with the guy.)
Aftermath: The one kid who was vomiting was not feeling well on the trip back. I gave him some peptobismol pills and made him drink water. He wasn't interested in dinner but started to perk up by breakfast. Seems that the ex-husband fed them almost exclusively Suzy-Q cakes, candy and Mountain Dew all summer-in 101 Fahrenheit weather! The kids are a bit young to know about nutrition, so being fed all the junk food they wanted was likely the culprit although we are not certain. They are both doing better and are eating healthy and sensibly again.
The second court date was as bad as the first was good. The judge decided to change nothing, so the ex-husband may try this again next year. And that's how a real-life kidnapping case goes. I hope it helps some of you authors out there. Laters.