“Stranger Danger” is a very important lesson many parents teach their kids. In 2022, it’s an essential part of living in our modern world, where those who would wish us harm are always on the prowl and developing more complicated scams and ways to trick us.
Many parents never get validation that their methods of drilling their children to be wary of strangers have worked, but one Pennsylvania father has proof this week after his son had a frightening encounter that was caught on film.
Sammy Green, a 10-year-old from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, generally makes the after-school schlepp home with a friend and his friend’s father before continuing on a few blocks by himself. On Nov. 11 he was walking the last leg alone when an unfamiliar woman approached him.
“She was like, ‘I’m going to Wawa, are you going there? What are you getting from Wawa? Where’s your family at?’” Sammy recalled, according to CBS News.
“Said that she probably knew me and was going to Wawa and that he was supposed to go with her and he could get anything that he wanted,” the boy’s father, Sam Green, told WPVI-TV.
She wouldn’t leave him alone and kept pressing him to go with her. Sammy spotted a shop called Dani Bee Funky nearby that he’d gotten to know well since his family moved to the area in July, and headed in.
Hannah Daniels, 17, was the cashier at Dani Bee Funky that afternoon, and when she saw Sammy come in she thought the woman on his heels must have been his mother — but the woman stayed at the door as Sammy beelined for Daniels.
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“He was like, ‘Pretend like you’re my mom,’” Daniels said. “And I was just like, ‘all right, like, go to the back,’ and he didn’t want to leave my side.”
Daniels walked to the front door, shut it and then locked it. Sammy was safe, all because he’d been quick on his feet and prepared for such an encounter by his vigilant father, but it understandably left Sammy upset.
“I was still shaking when I was in here, though,” the boy said.
The close call was caught on the store’s camera, and the boy’s father cried every time he watched it.
“To see my, my child looking for help because he was afraid for, basically, for his life,” Sam Green said, according to CBS News. “That cuts you deep.”
He posted the video online asking locals for help identifying the woman, as she definitely wasn’t a friend of the parents as she claimed to be. He also has set up a neighborhood watch group of “guardian angels” and has words of wisdom to share with others parents.
“Think of every scenario and make sure that children know … and also practice it,” he said. “Practice, you know, your, your situations and scenarios just like fire drills.”
“I have told Sammy to (ask) an adult for help and to be loud and scream about it.”
Dani Small, the owner of the shop, is proud of Daniels’ actions and thrilled that Sammy felt comfortable enough with them to ask for help when he needed it.
“I am very proud of her,” Small said. “Hannah is a 17-year-old young lady. She did everything correctly.”
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Pottstown Police eventually found the suspicious woman and say she’s now receiving treatment for some mental health concerns.
“No one ever called the police or 911 to report this incident,” Chief of the Pottstwon Police Department Mick Markovich told ‘Today.’
“We saw the video on Facebook and investigated it from there. Several of our officers recognized the woman on the Facebook video as a local homeless woman that is often in the area. She has mental health issues. We were able to find her and refer her for some help.”
