Parents, loved ones , I urge you to read,save this thread and teach it to your children well, please!
The Jenna Hart Abduction Story. How We Got Our Daughter Home Safely
Findingjenna.com is not only an example of a wonderful success story involving the recovery of an abducted 3 year old; but it is more of an expression of thanks from her parents.
Jenna's parents have created a step-by-step procedure for alerting police, media and the community in the event of a child's abduction. They leave no stone unturned in their recommendations of who, when, how and why to call upon anyone who can help get the word out about the missing child.
While this site would be extremely helpful to a family going through this experience, everyone should read through it with an objective mind and make sure they know all the steps to take if the situation arises.
A very interesting spin here - you may be the person called upon by a distraught family to "help out." You may be the only one with an objective view when the family of an abducted child is going through the emotional trauma. Be prepared, be knowledgeable, make a difference.
The Jenna Hart Abduction Story - How We Got Our Daughter Home Safely
Prevention
There are several web sites (Child Shield, USA and Code Amber to name two) and many published documents relating to the prevention of child abductions. However, these are a few of the things that we felt applied to our situation:
Memorize your license plate number, or know where it can be found in your files, quickly. For us, not knowing the license plate number delayed the police by over a half-hour - precious time when you're searching for a missing child. Keep a record of your car's vital statistics - make, model, year, VIN number, etc. - in your wallet or someplace outside of the vehicle.
Have family pictures taken on a regular basis. If your child wears glasses, take an occasional photo of them without their glasses. Know where current photos and/or videos can be found for police and the media. Carry a current photo of each child with you.
Have your child fingerprinted and/or have a DNA sample taken. There are numerous organizations that perform these services, many of them at no cost to you.
If you carry a cell phone in your car, keep it on. If your cell phone is on, the police may be able to track it to get an approximate location. In our case, the cell phone was off and in Grandma's purse, so it didn't help.
Know what credit cards you are carrying so if they are stolen with your vehicle, you will be able to report them.
You may want to consider installing an electronic tracking system such as Lo-Jack, which allows the police to track the vehicle if it's reported stolen.
Our recommendations for the family and friends of an abducted child are as follows:
Contact the Police immediately!
Contact family and friends
Contact the media
Get the word out
Make a difference!