An 8-year-old boy is nearly snatched by a stranger when the boy's baby sitter turns away for a few moments at a Costa Mesa coin laundry.
Landscapers report seeing a young girl forced into a car by two men outside a Mission Viejo school. Orange County sheriff's deputies are perplexed when no one comes forward to report a missing child fitting her description.
A 17-year-old tells Fountain Valley police that she was kidnapped, fondled and robbed at knifepoint before the assailant let her go. Police investigate and later conclude she fabricated the story.
All three instances occurred in the past week, forcing hasty head counts at local schools and sparking new concern among Orange County parents. But local law enforcement officers stress that child abductions are rare. While heightened awareness is beneficial, it can also lead to unnecessary panic, they warn.
"When something happens in an area, it is important we go and advise the people of what occurred," said Santa Ana Police Capt. Dan McCoy, referring to the difficult balance police must strike when an attempted abduction is reported. "By the same token . . . we don't want to start a hysteria. We have not seen an increasing number of these things."
Local, state and national experts agree, although much of their information is anecdotal.
Many agencies that compile crime statistics--including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Justice--do not keep track of attempted abductions.
The number of attempted child kidnappings locally is also difficult to come by. The Orange County Sheriff's Department, for example, doesn't keep statistics on attempted kidnappings in its jurisdiction.
The recent rash of reported abductions in Orange County wrongly makes attempted child abductions appear to be a common occurrence, said Lt. Dan Johnson of the Huntington Beach Police Department, which this year has investigated three such reports.
But Johnson and others still recommend that parents remain alert and take extra precautions--such as discussing safety issues with their children--to help prevent a tragedy.
"Maybe police are just reporting these incidents more often when they occur, or maybe the media is suddenly giving them more attention," Johnson said. "Either way, I don't think raising people's awareness is a bad thing. The fact is that these incidents do occur."
