I made the difference in the life of a child today.

[Rain Man]

I really hate that "made a difference" saying. Really hate it. Not sure why I used it other than sarcasm since I hate it so much.

But anyway, I finished up a meeting today and was walking home when I stopped at the mall. I had to send an e-mail and it's a good place to people watch, so I bought a frozen yogurt (I love that pay-by-the-ounce frozen yogurt concept) and found a seat near the escalators.

At one point while I was working, I ended up noticing a girl who was about three years old, and it became obvious that she had no parent around. She was just wandering around. So long story short, I went and got her, and after about ten minutes I and the Cinnabon counter girl and another couple managed to reunite her with some rather frantic parents who'd lost her and were literally running around the mall trying to find her. (The Cinnabon girl didn't know how to reach mall security, which I found rather interesting, and we found the parents before we got word to mall security.)

But the part that got me thinking was that there's a risk for a 40-something guy to go approach a lost three year-old girl. If you walk up at the wrong time, you get tackled by a parent and get arrested as a stranger abduction pervert and you end up on the sex offender registry after being brutalized in prison for a period of time of not less than six to ten years, and no one's ever going to believe that you were trying to help. So as soon as I confirmed she was lost, I immediately steered her toward the teenage girl who was running the Cinnabon, because she would qualify as a trusted person more than I would. Kind of sad, really.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Chiefs Rool

no I don't, but my wife wasn't home. I try to be a good person, but there is no way you take someone elses kid in your car when you are a man. If my wife was with me, it might be ok. But there's just no way. I mean, it was the middle of the day and I hope he made it home safe. But there is absolutely no way I would drive someone elses kid that I don't know home. You would get thrown in prison for that, that's ****ed up, but you would.

Paranoid idiot much?

[Predarat]

Originally Posted by ClayWhit

Ice cream places must make money hand over fist. Think about how much ice cream you can buy for $6.66 at the grocery store.

And if it's self-serve, you save on employee labor.

I think I should open an ice cream hole-in-the-wall. I live right by a high school, literally around the corner, and there's a small business strip with two vacant stores. If I could undercut the TCBY which is down the road (about 5 miles), maybe it would work?

Actually it is tough to make money if you own an ice cream store, especially if you live in a climate where it is cool/cold 6 months of the year. If you can find a way to get clients other then ice cream, you might be able to make it.

[FAX]

I once encountered a 6 year-old who was lying and weeping in a downtown gutter. At first, I thought it was a dirty, sick midget working some kind of midget scam, but it was actually a little kid. I asked the tiny, frail vagabond what had happened and, as I watched the pitiful tears running down her sad, dirty cheek, learned the story. Although her trembling lip and dehydrated state caused her to speak in a halting, breathless stutter, she was able to eventually convey that the poor, unfortunate child had somehow gotten lost and disoriented and was missing her mother and father terribly. It was heart-rending, so I did what any red-blooded American would do; I briefly considered the possible legal ramifications, told the youngster to buy a map, and got the hell out of there.

FAX

[Chiefs Rool]

Originally Posted by Brock

Paranoid idiot much?

well, I'm not risking life as a sex offender and 10 years in prison for that. It would be child abduction and I would have no defense on the matter if I helped the kid. So, sorry but that's the way this world is today.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Predarat

Actually it is tough to make money if you own an ice cream store, especially if you live in a climate where it is cool/cold 6 months of the year. If you can find a way to get clients other then ice cream, you might be able to make it.

If combined with a brothel, I think it would produce a solid year-round revenue stream.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Chiefs Rool

well, I'm not risking life as a sex offender and 10 years in prison for that. It would be child abduction and I would have no defense on the matter if I helped the kid. So, sorry but that's the way this world is today.

Uh...yes you would. In fact, a defense wouldn't have been necessary - there's no way you could've been charged with a crime. You ought to look up the elements of kidnapping and remember that the prosecution has to somehow prove them (and prosecutors aren't actually in the business of arresting as many people as possible). Think of how many child sex-offenders that are actually guilty go free for lack of evidence and you'll realize how absurd you sound right now.

Do you honestly think you'd get arrested if a kid climbed into your car and you drove towards the parents house? If you somehow managed to get pulled over during the 2 mile drive on the way there, you may have to explain it to the officer, but that's about it.

Do you think the parents are going to have you arrested when you get the kid out of your car in their driveway? Yeah, lots of child rapists drop the kids off at the front door.

At worst, it costs you a few hours if you had a truly nuts cop. No prosecutor in the world would ever charge you (on what evidence?).

He's right - you're being absolutely insanely paranoid. If this is the way you live your life, I'd suggest you simply not leave your house. Afterall, banter at work could be construed as harassment. Bumping someone in the aisle of a Safeway could be seen as sexual assault. You could slip on some ice and land in a vagina - who the hell knows? Afterall, it's a crazy world we live in.

The Golden Rule failed miserably here. Were it your child, you'd have been exceptionally greatful had someone given him a ride home and/or otherwise looked out for his well-being. Rather than extend that same courtesy, you concocted some strange sequence of events in your mind that somehow allowed you to shut the door on a wandering child without pain of guilt.

Neat trick, but I wouldn't go around telling that story looking for a pat on the back. It was a shitty response on your part.

[B_Ambuehl]

Originally Posted by Chiefs Rool

I had a 7 or 8 year old boy ring my doorbell last year, he was walking home and he wanted to use my phone. I step outside and hand him my cell phone, no answer. He says he lives a few miles away and asks for a ride home. I told him that there is no way I could do that. I wanted to help him, but I knew if I gave him a ride, then I would most likely get thrown in jail as a pervert, kidnapper, whatever. He seemed sad and walked off.

Jesus ****. Talk about being overly paranoid.

[Rain Man]

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by Kyle DeLexus

The thing about it is, what if you had watched the news that night or the next and you see a picture of that kid and he's gone missing? I'd probably risk it and make sure he got home safe.

Then the child learns to trust any stranger which could come back to bite him someday. I'd call the police so they can find the parents. Even if he objected.

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by Chiefs Rool

I offered that to the kid, but he said he'd walk.

I'd have still called them just so he'd be safe.

[Chiefs Rool]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Uh...yes you would. In fact, a defense wouldn't have been necessary - there's no way you could've been charged with a crime. You ought to look up the elements of kidnapping and remember that the prosecution has to somehow prove them (and prosecutors aren't actually in the business of arresting as many people as possible). Think of how many child sex-offenders that are actually guilty go free for lack of evidence and you'll realize how absurd you sound right now.

Do you honestly think you'd get arrested if a kid climbed into your car and you drove towards the parents house? If you somehow managed to get pulled over during the 2 mile drive on the way there, you may have to explain it to the officer, but that's about it.

Do you think the parents are going to have you arrested when you get the kid out of your car in their driveway? Yeah, lots of child rapists drop the kids off at the front door.

At worst, it costs you a few hours if you had a truly nuts cop. No prosecutor in the world would ever charge you (on what evidence?).

He's right - you're being absolutely insanely paranoid. If this is the way you live your life, I'd suggest you simply not leave your house. Afterall, banter at work could be construed as harassment. Bumping someone in the aisle of a Safeway could be seen as sexual assault. You could slip on some ice and land in a vagina - who the hell knows? Afterall, it's a crazy world we live in.

The Golden Rule failed miserably here. Were it your child, you'd have been exceptionally greatful had someone given him a ride home and/or otherwise looked out for his well-being. Rather than extend that same courtesy, you concocted some strange sequence of events in your mind that somehow allowed you to shut the door on a wandering child without pain of guilt.

Neat trick, but I wouldn't go around telling that story looking for a pat on the back. It was a shitty response on your part.

it's funny what you mentioned here:

Afterall, banter at work could be construed as harassment. - seen it happen. Some friendly talk at work led to a sexual harassment by a girl who overheard the conversation, which was nothing about her. The poor guy got fired after many years of good work.

Bumping someone in the aisle of a Safeway could be seen as sexual assault.
-A girl indeed got bumbed into kind of, the guy walked behind her and kind of touched her back, not in any sexual way, just like "I'm coming right behind you" She made a huge stink about it and it took weeks for corporate to handle this and the guy got fired.

So, you don't have a very good grip on reality my friend. You're an idealist.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Chiefs Rool

it's funny what you mentioned here:

Afterall, banter at work could be construed as harassment. - seen it happen. Some friendly talk at work led to a sexual harassment by a girl who overheard the conversation, which was nothing about her. The poor guy got fired after many years of good work.

Bumping someone in the aisle of a Safeway could be seen as sexual assault.
-A girl indeed got bumbed into kind of, the guy walked behind her and kind of touched her back, not in any sexual way, just like "I'm coming right behind you" She made a huge stink about it and it took weeks for corporate to handle this and the guy got fired.

So, you don't have a very good grip on reality my friend. You're an idealist.

So like I said - you should probably avoid leaving the house. It's a scary world.

[Rain Man]

If he called the police, they'd then have to take him to Social Services to avoid a lawsuit on the off chance that the child accidentally gave them the wrong address or if the parents weren't home. And then once Social Services got involved, they'd have to remove him from the home because they couldn't risk a lawsuit by returning him since the parents had already let the kid get lost once. So they'd send him to a foster home, and for the next ten years or so he'd kick around the system while his parents were in court trying to regain guardianship of them, and eventually at 18 he'd get pushed out the door, penniless and alone, and would turn to a life of crime to support himself and to strike back at the society that ruined his life. And he'd drive around the neighborhood in his beat-up Chevy Impala, cigarette dangling from his lips, looking for the house that started it all so he can inflict upon them some measure of the pain he's been feeling. And then one day Chiefs Rool is out working in the yard when he sees a car drive slowly by, and they make eye contact...

[mlyonsd]

Moral of the story is today's kids are soft if they need a ride home when it's only a few miles walk.

[Chiefs Rool]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

So like I said - you should probably avoid leaving the house. It's a scary world.

no, but you are probably right that I should have just called the police.