Stranger tries to kidnap a boy by luring him on a boat — parasail staff manages to foil his attempt
Following one's gut can be helpful in many situations. A parasail owner and his staff learned that when they managed to foil a kidnapping attempt by listening to their intuition when something felt off. A man had dragged a 10-year-old boy out of the water and was luring him to come with him, saying that he was his mother's fiancé. The man was trying to get the 10-year-old on a boat. When employees at Coeur d'Alene Parasail witnessed the event, they had a feeling that something was off, per KREM 2 News.
A CCTV footage from that day showed that a man was coming towards the CDA parasail with a child. "Immediately, the kid went around me and hid behind me and stated, 'I don't know that man, he is not my dad,'" the parasail owner, Jamie Rodriguez, recounted. The man kept insisting that he was the boy's dad, but Rodriguez felt that there was something wrong with the entire situation. Rodriguez kept a watch on the child and started questioning the man, who explained that he would go and get the boy's mom to prove himself right. Rodriguez called the police and decided to follow the man. "Then he started heading back to the dock. I am like, 'Riley, you stay with the kid, find his mom. I am gonna follow this guy because we can't let him go.'"
Rodriguez knew that they wouldn't be able to find the suspicious guy if they let him go at that time. He followed the man around the lake for about 15 minutes and kept updating the authorities about their location. "He's like, stop following me. Leave and go back to your booth." The parasail owner refused to do that and compared the "creepy" man to a "main actor" in a "horror movie." The employees stayed with the kid and tried to find his mom. "She's right there, so we both started to run to her," an employee, Riley, explained. "He was crying, super sad." The boy's mom couldn't believe what happened, but was very grateful for all the help from the parasail staff.
"The most important thing to take from this story is people are just more aware of the fact that this could happen in our little town of Coeur d'Alene," Rodriguez expressed. The police arrived at the scene and booked the suspect, John Marshall Randolph, in the Kutney County Jail for child enticement. The mom and the employees decided to push the case further to ensure that the man stays away from kids in the future. Rodriguez encouraged people to trust their gut feeling because of the incident, as it might save someone's life. People shared their thoughts on the incident in the comments section of the video.
@pointy5911 wrote, "Anyone who legit attempts to kidnap a kid should absolutely never see the light of day again. They're too dangerous to be let out ever." @dwlinge commented, "Another critical message: Encourage children to trust their instincts. This child saved himself from a horrific fate and potentially saved other children by telling an adult when he sensed danger and by asking for help." @Whitecourtain remarked, "Respect for this man who didn't stop at making sure the kid is safe but went after the guy, these people really think they can nonchalantly walk away if the attempt fails and try another time!"