Risks of Child Kidnapping in KL

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2 … two-years/

We lived in KL for a very long time, and I remember reading several times about very young local girls being abducted and abused and then turning up dead in sports bags and the like. We heard about people leaving their cars unlocked for a few seconds, or leaving the key in the ignition for a moment, or parents allowing their young kids to to walk behind them without keeping an eye on them etc.

I know many people talk about how safe Malaysia is. But for us, with two young toddlers at the time, firstly we moved away from Bukit Bintang to Bangsar which is what we considered a safer area (it probably isn't) . Then we always held our children's hands wherever we were. And in particular we made sure that nobody could snatch our children from our car whether in a shopping mall carpark or out in the open. We also kept an eye open on suspicious people. It became second nature to be cautious.

I am not saying that you need to be paranoid about your kids being abducted, but just be aware at all times. We had heard rumors of children being abducted and that they'd be transported to Thailand the same day for the sex trade, or sold for their body parts, or even mutilated to become beggars in another country.

Now we live in Indonesia. But the risks are just as much here as in Malaysia. Gangs are involved in child abductions here and one has to be alert at all times because the nicest looking lady wearing a tudung could be part of a gang that snatches your child just before a lift door closes or yanks away your child with the help of four men in a mall carpark. Only once did we experience such a woman who took my sons hand and started to walk away with him and as soon as we spotted this she claimed that she thought it was her own son. The fact that her nearby son was about 10 years old compared to our western looking kindergarten boy wasn't lost on us.

I'll add something about kindergartens. This is something that most schools take very seriously. Kindergartens usually need to know the names of the people who are authorized to pick up your kids and usually will not let anyone else take away your child. If someone else turns up asking for your child the school should first call you  before allowing a child to go with them.

So while there is no need to get paranoid about child abductions, my advice is to keep a close eye on your kids when in shopping malls, car parks and when enlightening or entering your car. And strictly emphasize with your child's school who is authorized to pick up your kids. Watch out for suspicious characters at all times.

Having said all that, we read about child kidnappings happening all over the world, so it is certainly not unique to Southeast Asia and probably it will never happen to you. You just need to be cautious and aware of people around you and to hold your child's hands always.

I know some people might stress how safe Malaysia is, but my take on this is that if you have young children then you just cannot take the chance. Once your child is gone then you'll probably never see them again.

Thanks for your detailed sharing, really appreciate that!

Thats an excellent post from Abdul that covers this well.

In Fred's article, 4000 kids missing out of 30 million population leaves you with an extremely low chance of a problem. You have a better chance of winning the Lottery. And, does one refuse to fly just because there have been air crashes in history? No. We just keep going the best we can and that applies here too. No guarantees in life but very little chance, too. Its acceptable.

That said, I'll tell you something interesting. I live in Penang and this year alone, Ive seen at least 10 kids, ages 3-5, simply wandering around alone. Mostly girls. No parents, no siblings, no nothing. Ive seen them in malls, at Tesco, on the street. You wait, you watch them, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, still wandering, no apparent connection to any family. What the h-ll is this about?

This brings up a good question. Does anyone, as a parent, prefer I detain the kid on the spot and wait, take them to a security guard or the police, or leave them alone and move on? I have never touched a kid lest I be accused of something, yet a right-thinking person has a hard time watching this happen and doing nothing.  Suggestions?

I guess the safest thing is to find a security guard or policeman and notify them. Even speaking to a kid that isn't your own could land you in big trouble. Times really have changed. I used to walk alone to primary school at 6 years of age, a walk of about a mile, and then all through secondary school I walked about 2 miles. Wouldn't risk it with my own kids nowadays.

Abdul,

Exactly, thats the problem. Funny isnt it? Nobody sees the child alone, they are blind, but the moment I stop and talk to the kid to ask where their parents are, I bet 20 people will notice and call the cops.

When you notice children wandering around alone, then you read articles about missing children, is it any wonder? A few times, I have seen parents with those leashes attached to their little ones and maybe it should be a law. Maybe the parents need to be fined for wandering kids. Its a scary thing to see.

When I was 6+ I always walked to school, between 1-3 miles. We never had to worry because adults in the neighborhood who were driving in cars always had a way of looking after the walking kids and would know if something was wrong and do something about it. My fear wasnt being kidnapped, my fear was the various mean and nasty bullies along the way and there was no guarantee i'd arrive at school without a bloody nose!

A small blonde girl with green eyes went missing from Bukit Bintang Kuala Lumpur at the end of last year. But there are no news reports of her missing on Google or anywhere else online except for posters pasted in banks throughout Malaysia. So many kidnappings are not reported widely and mainly foreign-looking children are targeted.

Well, Malaysia does have the NUR Alert system which I wrote the program parameters for in, I think, 2010. Eventually, the program got started and you can google for its various locations including Facebook.  So there is at least some semblance of a missing kid system in which various agencies and the public can pool information to find kids. But like anything else, who really uses it? who really cares?

Well intentioned as it is, what I learned from being involved in the program is that it takes a huge amount of resources to find a missing kid and there is very little interest in diverting much time, money and personnel unless a case is high profile. What prompted the formation of the system was the case of a girl who went missing and an entire community dropped what it was doing to find that kid. Thats exactly whats required but its too much to do an a regular basis. I also learned that unless the kid is found very fast, the chances grow weaker by the day.

Anyone can work in this. You can review the NUR Alert profiles, print out pics and details and start hunting the kids. Get in your car, look high and low, make police reports, conduct interviews and question people for leads, search in jungles and inside peoples houses, quit your job and turn all your attention to it. Who wants in? I would say basically nobody does, not even the police who will not even get out of their chair unless you hand them the kid on a silver platter: I found the child, she is in this house, this address, right now. Then MAYBE the police will act, and maybe not.

I find it very frustrating about this country that new programs get rolled out with much fanfare, hoopla and bravado, only to be relegated to the back of the bus when the very next newfangled thing comes along. They start programs that they dont have the resources to fulfill, and the  public has an extremely short attention span and expects someone else to do the heavy lifting.

Maybe people in this group will review NUR Alert and suggest to the government ways to enhance, streamline, popularize the program. Raising public interest in anything is very hard and needs constant work.