Terrifying footage captures alleged kidnappers trying to take kids from street
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Good Morning America
Heartstopping footage shows a group of children running away screaming with an alleged kidnapper in pursuit.
As millions of children across the US head back to school following the summer break, parents are being advised to warn their kids about talking to strangers.
It comes as parent Genna Skolnik recently shared footage of an incident that happened earlier this month.
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Door camera footage shows a man in a white tee and shorts getting out of his white SUV and running after Jonathan, Genna's son.
The Dallas mom sat down with Jonathan and her other son, Zachary, in an interview aired on Good Morning America.
The trio recalled what happened when two vehicles pulled outside of the home where the lads and their nine-year-old friends were enjoying the last bit of the summer holidays.
Genna said: "I heard screaming and I thought, and I could hear commotion outside."
Zachary then revealed when he realized a big problem was on his hands.
"We get onto the sidewalk and we try to skip past and I hear the driver's telling my friends to get into their car," he said.
The friends could then be see running off into the house and be heard screaming.
"I was the first one at the door screaming, 'Someone's trying to kidnap us!'" Zachary went on.
Jonathan recalled how the man was trying to lure him into the SUV as he claimed a football was waiting for him in the back of a car.
"He said, 'There's a football in the back of the car.' And then, we should get in the back of the car. Then I said, 'I'm sorry. I don't talk to strangers and I ran away,'" Jonathan told GMA.
Genna was able to rush out of her home, phone in hand, and able to take a snap of the SUV's license plate before it was out of sight.
Callahan Walsh, the executive director for the Florida office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told GMA that parents and guardians should be having conversations with their kids about keeping safe.
"Children should be very wary of strangers that are in a car approaching them," he told the programme.
"We know that the vast majority of attempted abductions and successful abductions use a vehicle.
"We know that the perpetrators are using the same lures, like asking for directions, looking for a lost puppy, or having candy.
"And so, parents need to be talking to their children about identifying these risky situations and knowing how to avoid them."