ABDUCTED: 30 People Share Stories Of Being Kidnapped By Their Own Family Members
"My father introduced his girlfriend to us by saying, ‘This is your new mother. You'll never see your other mother again.’"
1. Dad said he was going to the store and asked to take me along.
“Mom and dad divorced. They were still amicable. He said he was going to the store and asked to take me along. We lived in North Alabama, 15 miles south of TN. He took me to South Alabama to Atmore, where he had some cousins. Planned on keeping me. I was around 4. I told him I missed my mama. He called her, let me talk to her and brought me home.”
2. My father introduced his girlfriend to us by saying, ‘This is your new mother. You’ll never see your other mother again.’
“We were living in Isphahan, Iran, in 1960. My mom went on a long vacation in France that summer. When she was gone our father packed up me (10) and my other sister (12) and flew us to Madrid without telling us where we were going. (He was scary. We didn’t ask.) We were met in Madrid at the airport by a British woman, Pat, who my father introduced to us by saying, ‘This is your new mother. You’ll never see your other mother again.’
We then went to Majorca where Pat had a vacation house and met her three kids. Us five kids would go to the beach every day till one day when our father told us we had to tell Pat’s kids they were getting him as a new dad, adios old dad. Then we all left for England, those three kids went to their boarding school, and our dad put us in a different one (Hollington Park School for Young Ladies, no longer there).
Meanwhile my mom had got back to Isphahan to no one. She searched the house and found some discarded brochures for boarding schools in Europe. She wrote to churches in several countries and asked them to ask at local schools if we were there. Someone found us, my mom had the household packed up and shipped back to the States, and came and got us. I guess we were kidnapped for about four or five months.
The cherry on the sundae was that Pat managed to get hold of my dad’s inheritance that had been set aside as college funds for my three older siblings and me. My parents divorced, and Pat lost interest when she had the money.”
3. One morning at like 4am my dad broke into the house and took my brother and I from the Florida line to Seattle.
“My mother got a restraining order against my father after he tried to shoot my brother, her and I, so one morning at like 4am he broke into the house and took my brother and I from the Florida line to Seattle. There was a lot of sleeping in basements and avoiding people and being told my mother wasn’t around because she didn’t love us. At some point during the time he had us he apparently struck my half brothers wife while she was pregnant. Anyways, eventually the police discovered where he had us and took us out of the school he had put us in, but I’ve always been like “if you knew where we were and were he was working why the fuck did you wait like a month?” Anyways the judge wound up throwing the book at his crazy ass and he wasn’t allowed to see us again until we were 18.”
4. My mother’s parents are evil. Just bags of skin filled with the toenail clippings of a human soul.
“When I was four years old, my infant brother was in the hospital battling a serious disease, and my parents were told that he could take a turn for the worse and croak at any time. My father worked crazy hours, sometimes out of town, and wasn’t able to take time off work, leaving my mother to deal with the situation more or less alone. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea of having four-year-old me sit in a hospital room all day, and wanted my life to go on as ‘normally’ as possible. Problem was, we were new to our city and didn’t have any friends yet, and my parents definitely couldn’t afford a live-in babysitter. So my mother put me in the care of her parents.
My mother’s parents are evil. Just bags of skin filled with the toenail clippings of a human soul. She ran away from them at age 16 after a lifetime of abuse, but had been trying to ‘start over’ with them right before my brother got sick. In the early days, they told me that they were praying for my brother to hurry up and die so that my mom would let me come live with them permanently (super-villain logic). When he started getting better, they decided to just load me into their car and drive me to their home on the other side of the country. We barely made it past the city limits when my idiot grandfather mixed up the gas and brake pedals and slammed into a wall, totaling the car. My parents got me back, my brother got out of the hospital and grew up to be the size of an industrial refrigerator, and my grandparents both got slapped with restraining orders. Haven’t seen either of them since.”
5. My father took me on Halloween when I was 5.
“My father took me on Halloween when I was 5. We ended up 3 states over, he had major warrants out, and went on the run, he was a violent drunk and a tweaker, we hopped counties most of my childhood avoiding his newest warrants. He tried to kill me several times while drunk by strangling me and I basically grew up in honky-tonk bars, and him drunk driving with me in the car almost driving us off a cliff in between the bar and our house. He hurt me really bad one day and school got involved. I was given to his mother who promptly moved him in where it continued. I had to run away back to my original state to be with my mom. But by then I was super messed up by it and had to live in children’s shelter and a group home.”
6. Mom took me in defiance, then changed her mind and left me at a YMCA.
“My mom was pissed my dad was getting custody in the divorce. I guess she took me in defiance, then changed her mind and left me at a YMCA. Never saw her again. I was 3.
It’s cool though, I think abandonment issues are gonna be all the rage in a few years.”
7. My biological father kidnapped us from Iowa and took us to New Mexico.
“So I was like 3, my sister was 4 and my brother was an infant. My biological father kidnapped us from Iowa and took us to New Mexico, where he left us with our grandmother, his mom, for 8 months. While we were living with my grandmother, I guess my mom would call looking for him and looking for us, and grandma would tell my mom she didn’t know where he was and she didn’t know where we were. She even cut me and my sister’s hair off to make us look like little boys so no one would recognize us. I guess one day my biological father came to his mom’s and kidnapped us again from her this time, where she called my mom and told her what was going on. Mom got on a bus and came to get us. I don’t remember much because I was so little but I remember this part, he had taken us to a homeless shelter where the police found us. They arrested him and kept us safe until our mom got there and took us back home on a bus. I didn’t find out how long we had actually been gone until I was in college, like 18 years old, talking with my mom about it. From my memory the whole thing seems like just a span of days, not months. I don’t know whatever happened with my biological father’s arrest, I don’t know what they charged him with, I don’t know if my grandmother ever even got in trouble. I never talked to him and he died when I was 16. Of course, I don’t associate with that side of the family at all either.”
8. My alcoholic grandfather and aunt waited outside my gran’s house one day and took my sister and I while we were in the garden.
“When I was 8 we went to Scotland to visit family for two weeks and v. Being so small and knowing the people taking us we went along happily. We were taken to some old castle and an indoor play gym called monkey something or other. They apparently both had been drinking the whole day and were driving around drunk with us. We started whining eventually because it’s late and cold and we wanted to go home to our mom, my grandfather got angry and called us ungrateful etc. and took us back to my gran’s and there were police everywhere. My mom had reported us missing, police had been searching for us all day, everyone was very stressed because a little girl had been attacked in the area just before we flew over. So we got out the car and there were officers and my mom running at us, it was very confusing and we thought we were in trouble. The officers spoke to us and later my mom explained what happened, why there were police and why everyone was so upset. I’ve never asked about it since so I don’t know if they were arrested/charged with anything or not, but they weren’t allowed near us for the rest of the time we were over there and we’ve never seen or really heard from either of them since.”
9. My mother and my aunt kidnapped me when I was 11.
“I really don’t know if I should tell it but I have to get it off my chest.
My mother and my aunt kidnapped me when I was 11. It was the last day of school before holidays and I was sick with a fever, my father and my sister weren’t home. Suddenly my aunt (who lives a six-hour drive away and never visited) came to a surprise visit and we had a nice breakfast. Mom was kinda in a hurry. My aunt let Something slip about a new flat, I didn’t suspect anything until then. Then I see the things my mom packed up. Aunt tries to play it cool and tells me we visit my grandparents. I panic and run into the bathroom to hide, but my mother stops me from locking the door, drags me out. My aunt puts me in her car, locks the door and drives.
I didn’t talk. For hours I was in a shock. She brings me to the town she and my grandparents live in, puts me in the flat, mom is coming shortly after. I am so stunned I don’t know what is happening. Everyone tells me I will have a better life now. I just want to see my pets, my sister and be at my home.
I didn’t hear anything from my father and sister in months. My mother doesn’t let me leave the house unsupervised. I get to walk to my grandparents with her, nothing more.
I ran away one day when I was supposed to be in school and took a six hour train ride home, having no money at all, running the last bus ride from the station to the small town we used to live in. Beg my father to let me stay. He says I can’t. I spent a night at home with them and then return to my mom who keeps all doors locked for the next year. I saw my father and sister twice. My cat ran away and died.
Worst months in my younger days were yet to come, though.
I know it’s not a typical kidnapping, it was my family after all. But looking back I consider it that, despite the fact it was my mother. A petty act of selfishness and definitely not something an adult and a parent should do.
To clarify: my parents got divorced months after this incident. Not before she took me with her.
Another thing a lot of people asked me: In the months I was on lockup my parents got through a divorce (I didn’t know that at that time cause everyone was banned to talk about my father and basically anything that could cast a bad light on my mother). My mother somehow convinced the court I was better off with staying with her, though no one asked me on that matter, and so my parents settled with a 50/50 custody, she had the right to keep me with her. When I got home to my dad and sister she had figured out I went there(six hours is a long time) and threatened to call police to retrieve me. Also unknown to me, she had stripped my dad off all his money including the house. It was sold a few weeks later. That is why he said I couldn’t stay.”
10. My father kidnapped me as an infant and hid me for three days at his severely-alcoholic sister’s house with essentially no supervision.
“My father kidnapped me as an infant and hid me for three days at his severely-alcoholic sister’s house with essentially no supervision. He was incredibly abusive to my mother, and after she left him due to six years of beatings and psychological torture (from ages fifteen to twenty-one) and her concern for her children (me at age one and my little brother on the way), he decided to take the one bit of happiness she had left away.
I was being babysat at one of my aunt’s houses (not the alcoholic mentioned earlier), and he came in and took me under the guise of ‘taking his baby girl for a walk.’ My mother was working her second job of the day because she was a single parent with one kid already and one on the way, so she had no way to know I had been taken until my aunt called her panicking about me being missing. My mom called my father, knowing he had something to do with my disappearance because he had recently showed back up in their hometown after she ran away from him two states away, and he had always threatened to take me just to spite her. Good ole’ Pops answers and basically says, ‘Fuck you. You’ll never see her again, and I’ll make damn sure of it.’ She felt she couldn’t call the police because he had drilled into her head over their six-year relationship (him being twelve years her senior, it wasn’t a healthy one at all) that if she ever got him in any trouble with the law, he’d kill her. So, she drove around to every possible place she could think of where he could have hid me, but she couldn’t find me. You can imagine the stress that this puts on a mother, especially a pregnant one, so what happened next basically floored me when I heard about it.
My dad, in all of his fucked-up ways, called my mother and told her he would drive her to where I was as long as she never told the police what had happened. Of course, she agreed, though she did plan to tell them after she had safely taken me away. He picks her up at night in a car that wasn’t his and started driving toward town, talking like a maniac the whole way due to being fucked up on multiple drugs at once. They end up in a deserted area of downtown (purposefully on his part), get out of the car, and he corners her against the back of a closed diner. “You’ll never fucking see her again. I’m going to fucking kill you bitch,” he said (Word for word, according to my mother), and he pulled a knife. Now, my mom is not a large woman, and she was pregnant at the time, so even an idiot would assume my father could overpower her; he wouldn’t need any weapon. Right? Wrong. She. Beat. The. Shit. Out. Of. Him. In a pitch-dark alley way at midnight. A straight up beat down by a tiny pregnant woman to a damn Sasquatch of a man. It’s the most badass thing I’ve ever heard of, personally. She left him unconscious and hitch-hiked back to her house with an old bar friend she knew, calling every friend and family member of his she knew to find me. Eventually, prior-mentioned alcoholic aunt answered and gave up my whereabouts, and my mom got me back. Luckily, the stress didn’t endanger her pregnancy, and a few months later, my younger brother came along. My dad did not fuck with my mom like that again (though, unfortunately, he still did make her life a living hell in other ways for sixteen years following my kidnapping).
Luckily or unluckily—I haven’t quite figured it out yet- my father died this past May. Suicide by hanging in front of his drug buddies’ house in the middle of the night. Luckily because my mother does not have to deal with any more craziness from him (what I’ve mentioned here doesn’t even to begin to cover it). Unluckily because my younger brother took it really hard and blamed himself. Mom never told him the worst of our dad’s actions, and he was our dad’s favorite. He always acted like a great dad during our court-mandated visits, so little bro had no reason to hate him. I like to think I came out well-adjusted through all the shit he put us through (mentally stable, I mean), so I’ve managed to deal with his death just fine.
Sorry for the wall of text. I never have been the best at condensed writing. Everything I mentioned was told to me by at least two different people, so I feel reasonably certain it’s all true.
TL;DR: Abusive asshole dad kidnaps me out of spite, attempts murder, gets the shit beaten out of him by my tiny, pregnant mother. I was returned safely after three or four days.”
11. My uncle grabbed me from my crib and drove us around town for a few hours to ‘teach’ my parents a lesson.
“My mom told me this story, that happened to me.
I was an infant, my uncle came over to our house and found the door unlocked and my folks and my sisters asleep in the living room. To ‘teach’ my parents a lesson he grabbed me from my crib and drove around town for a few hours and came back home. My family didn’t even know I was gone and I was still asleep.”
12. My teen mom came home one day to realize my biological father had taken me.
“My teen mom came home one day to realize my biological father had taken me. Apparently, she didn’t know where I was for 3 months. That’s all I know of the story. I wasn’t even 1 year old then so I have no recollection. This story was also brought up randomly one day and I was like “Oh…okay…” Lol. For some reason I’ve never had the curiosity to ask more details. Feels like a topic that should be left alone.”
13. Went to meet my dad one day. Was taken to the airport to ‘look at planes.’ A couple of hours later we had landed in my dad’s local airport.
“Nothing special. Went to meet my dad one day. Was taken to the airport to ‘look at planes.’ A couple of hours later we had landed in my dad’s local airport. Was there a few days and then sent (unattended) back home. As it happens. My dad called my mum before we got on the flight but lied and said that we had already landed and he was calling from his country. He passed the phone to me and obviously my mum was worried but told me to look after my brother that kind of thing. Had she known we were still at ‘our’ airport, she would have been there in 45 mins. We were with him for about 4 days and then sent back. My mum took him to court and there were certain rules (that I don’t recall) that were put in place.”
14. Mom went several months without knowing where we were or talking to us.
“We lived in Ohio with our mom and were visiting our dad in Florida for the summer. I was maybe 3 and my brother was 7 or so. We were supposed to be with him for a month and he moved to a different city with us and my mom couldn’t find us. Nobody in his family would tell her where we were, either.
She went several months without knowing where we were or talking to us. I guess one time my grandparents (dad’s parents) did let us call and talk to her while we were visiting them, but they still wouldn’t tell here where my dad was keeping us. Finally he returned my brother to her because he was holding him out of school at that point and apparently that’s no bueno in the eyes of the law, but I guess he kept me for another month or two. I remember living in a weird house that was unfamiliar and also bits and pieces of thinking it was weird being there for a visit without my brother, but that’s about it.
Nowadays I’m thinking doing that kind of thing would get you in some deep shit, as my mom had sole custody and my dad had visitation only. The 70s/early 80s were a weird time I guess, because nothing ever happened to him over it. I still had to keep visiting him after that, too…including a judge making me get on an airplane BY MYSELF to fly to see him when I was FOUR. Like, not even in kindergarten yet. I accidentally locked myself in the bathroom on that flight and scared myself shitless. Gotta love court systems who rule on what’s in ‘the best interest of the child’
No, I don’t talk to my dad anymore. He’s a narcissistic assbag.”
15. My brother and I were kidnapped from school. We were taken by our dad, who is a meth addict and who we had a restraining order against.
“I was 9 years old when my brother and I were kidnapped from school. We were taken by our dad who is a meth addict and who we had a restraining order against. My elementary school that I attended was very small and was in the same community where my dad grew up. He used to be a motivational speaker and was deeply respected in this community. However, the school had been notified about the restrictions and was told to never let us leave with our dad if he were to show up. A serious thing that they chose to disregard.
I was just getting out of school when I saw him. He was twitching his eyes through the crowd of kids and parents and teachers looking for us. He looked manic with his eyes wide and messy hair. I ran as fast as I could past him and into a crowd of kids. I tried to duck and make myself small. I climbed onto the bus as fast as I could, sat in the very back row and slid down in my seat so no one could see me. My brother who was a year older was already closer to the bus end of the school lot, he got on without really seeing my dad or trying to hide. The bus driver called our names and said our dad was here. We paid no attention. The bus driver got frustrated and continued to shout out names and tell us that we couldn’t ride the bus because our dad was here. Finally my brother relented and tried to coax me out of my seat and just accept defeat. He left and then after arguing with the bus driver in a losing battle I got off the bus.
This wasn’t the first time we had been taken, maybe that is why my brother gave up so soon because he knew it was futile. Usually he would take us to drug houses with tons of people doing meth and smoking weed and we would fall asleep on a couch or the floor or something and our mom would find out where we were and would pick us up after she got off work at mid night.
Anyway, this time was the most vivid and most recent. That night he drove us around for hours. He was rambling to himself and I kept telling him that he had to take us home. Finally we ended up in the woods. Once we were there there was an old van that he said was his. He shattered the back window and because I was so small he pushed me through and had me crawl on my belly to the front seat and open the door. Then from there he drove us around until the morning.
He is a terrifying man. Drugs have made him into a reckless and crazy person who has tormented our lives. Although now days I just feel bad for him because he is the one who has missed out, not me.
Even though this experience left a huge impact on my life I never considered it to be a kidnapping until years later my fiancé (this is his profile not mine) and I were talking and I told him about it and he was like ‘so he kidnapped you?’ I was like yeah I guess he did but it was just apart of life at that point.
Anyway, there it is. There is a lot more to it than that but I didn’t want to make it too long. Feel free to ask questions.”
16. My dad picked me up from school when I was in kindergarten…
“It was during my mom and dad’s divorce. I was like five so I don’t remember much.
My dad picked me up from school when I was in kindergarten and we rushed back to the house. He told me to grab some things that I wanted to take, and that we were in a hurry. I don’t remember much about it aside from the fact that I wanted to bring this rug I had, but couldn’t. He mentioned something about getting me a new one. I remember the house being empty almost.
Then we get to his parents’ house that’s like 15 or so minutes out of town by the base. The only thing I remember is that they had a flat screen plasma 90s TV which was like a status symbol at the time. The screen was like those holographic 3D cards and they’d be pissed about me touching it. I also remember eating Apple Jacks, and reading The Velveteen Rabbit. They force fed me apples because they apparently were like Apple Jacks, which I remember crying and never really eating fruit again.
I also remember drawing on this printer paper that was really long and had the holes on the sides that could be torn off. The paper was folded and at the folds it could be torn. Then I remember playing this Ghostbusters game on this old ass computer thing on the floor. It was green and the screen was black.
I don’t remember going home, the rest of the thing, or anything. Turns out my mom didn’t know he took me, the school was like wtf, and the police led her to my location.
He only did it to use me as a way to get all of her shit in the divorce. You want your daughter, give me everything but the house.
That was only the beginning of the shit storm, so it’s probably good I blocked it out. It got real ugly later on. As in lots of police involvement and court. One of his lesser offenses was that he was planning on murdering my mom and I so we had to pack up and move the next day, due to suggestion of the police.
He’s dead, though, so that’s good.”
17. My sister and I were kidnapped as babies in the mid 60’s.
“My sister and I were kidnapped as babies in the mid 60’s. Our dad went to work, our grandmother came to our house in the city, packed us up lock, stock and barrel and brought us to the beach. I didn’t see our dad until his mother’s wake/funeral in 1992.
We were always told that he hated us, never gave money for support, that side of the family didn’t want to have anything to do with us, he tried to kill us by putting tape over our mouths…
Well, at the wake/funeral, talking with my father, I found out that he DID send support although he was never allowed to see us(my grandmother ripped the cheques up and sent em back) and that his mother had held onto dresses to give us when she saw us again: she never did. Pissed off and hurt doesn’t even come close to how I felt learning all this shite. And it was good that my grandmother was already dead.
And my sister kidnapped her own kids because her husband at the time decided to torture her during the divorce by saying that he was going to kill himself and let the kids find him. She freaked out and took the kids, wound up in a looney bin and lost custody of the kids.”
18. Father has really bad bipolar that was never treated. Sometimes his mania gets crazy.
“Father has really bad bipolar that was never treated. Sometimes his mania gets crazy. For Christmas he took me to Montana to see some of his friends. No big deal. On our way back he refused to bring me home to my mom (they were split up, she had custody). So my mom and her then BF end up chasing down my dad as I’m texting them the turns he makes trying to lose them. Finally they catch up and he stops. He and my mom’s BF get out and yell at each other as I’m moving my stuff out of his vehicle into my mom’s.”
19. My father kidnapped me for a few days when I was like two.
“My father kidnapped me for a few days when I was like two. I don’t remember most of it. I do remember that he was why I’ve always lived with my mother. I finally talked to him 24 years later and he was a jackass. Spent the whole time blaming everything on my family. I realized I was better off without him. He’s dead now and I’m not. Guess that means I made out better.”
20. My dad kidnapped me and my brothers when we were little.
“My dad kidnapped me and my brothers when we were little. He was abusive and we weren’t supposed to see him for some time. One day he showed up at my mom’s house and took us all. My mom called the police he eventually got caught and we were taken back home. Being 5 years old and someone who struggles with anxiety, this was a pretty terrifying experience. I remember my dad was yelling at us and telling us that we aren’t going back home.”
21. My told that my dad called the day we went missing saying she would never see us again and that we were his.
“My parents separated when I was 6. My dad was an alcoholic who wasn’t ever really right in the head always doing and saying crazy things. He had weekend visitation. When I was about 10 he came to my school on a weekday and picked up me and my younger sister, he said my mom said it was OK. He never had a stable living situation so he took us to some random person’s house I had never been to before. It all seemed strange but normal since he was always doing weird things and he always intimidated me as a kid so I didn’t question what was going on.
A day goes by and we don’t go to school. My sister and I are sleeping in a room in this random house with the housemate’s younger daughter. Two beds and a walk-in closet. There’s a butter knife jammed between the door frame and the handle to the closet. I don’t ask why. Later that day my dad says he’s taking me and my sister to a farm to see bunny rabbits! I’m excited as I love animals, I grew up with pet rats and cats. We get to this farm (I remember driving in the bed of the truck with my sister, this was back in 1994) we get out and there’s all these bunnies in cages. My dad picks up one and hands it to me and says to hold onto it we’re taking it back to the house. I’m super excited thinking I just got a pet rabbit! I hold it all the way back to the house, when we get there we walk into the room I slept in. My dad then goes to the walk-in closet with his buddy who owns the house I suppose. They wiggle the butter knife out and open the door. I see a big branch and fake plants and AstroTurf on the ground. I look inside and there is a python about five feet long curled up on the floor. My dad takes the bunny and throws it in. I then proceed to watch this giant snake eat my bunny. It terrified me and confused me. I started crying. He said we had to buy it food that’s why we went to the bunny farm. I go to sleep that night terrified that snake is going to escape and eat me and my sister.
The next day we still didn’t go to school. My dad says I’m helping him build a fence in the front yard. I was always a tomboy so I was excited to get the snake and bunny off my mind with a project. Enthusiastically, I help him dig post holes and cut material. My dad goes inside for whatever reason and leaves me and my sister in the front yard. Not 30 seconds after he walked inside my mom and grandma fly up on the lawn and jump out of the car yelling at us to get in. We don’t hesitate and jump right in the car leaving the front yard, my dad not even seeing us go. My mom and grandma are frantic crying and saying they can’t believe they found us. My mom starts to tell me that my dad called the day we went missing saying she would never see us again and that we were his. My mom and grandma called the police but nothing really came of it within the first couple days. So they got in the car and started driving around different cities they thought he would be in looking for us. My mom just happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw us out front of this house. At least that’s what she told me when I got older. Idk if this counts as kidnapping but after the bunny incident and not going to school I genuinely thought I was never going to see my mom again.”
22. My Mam kinda kidnapped me and my brother when I was 6 or 7 and he was 3.
“My Mam kinda kidnapped me and my brother when I was 6 or 7 and he was 3. I don’t know if my dad knew where we were going but in the months leading up to the move my parents would scream at each other while I sat upstairs and listened and my brother slept. One day my Mam told us we were going to visit her Mam about a seven-hour drive away. Since we visited all the time this didn’t seem unusual, when we got there everything was fine but we were told to go to our room and stay there. After a while my Mam came up and told us we were never going back home again. I remember being confused thinking we were just on holiday and we were going back for school (I was very concerned about missing school). But we continued living at my grandparents’ until my Mam rented a house close to them. I saw my dad a few months later when he was allowed to come see us in a parked car where my Mam left us and dad got in the car and started crying and telling us he didn’t choose this. He didn’t stay for long and we went back to our rented house where we lived for about 2 years until my parents for back together and we moved away again to a new place. Things are more stable with them now and I live in my own place so they can’t displace me anymore but the sudden removal of my normal life really messed me up for a while. I don’t think my brother even remembers most of it.”
—Silvertounges
23. When I was around 4, my dad kidnapped me for around 3 weeks.
“For most of my childhood, my parents were in an extremely toxic relationship often ending with them fighting each other to a bloody pulp on a regular basis. Every act they did was just to passive aggressively piss off the other one, including the time my father kidnapped me.
When I was around 4, my mother was trying to kick dear ol’ dad out of the house, which he obviously didn’t want to (he was also joint homeowner, so I dunno if the law is with or against him here), so to try and force her hand at letting him stay, he kidnapped me for around 3 weeks.
It wasn’t really negative and I sort of had fun since he was usually distant with me before then, so spending time with him was all right, I guess?
I’m not sure how he was able to hide from the police though, since he was keeping me at my grandmother’s house which I would have expected to be one of the first places the police investigate.”
24. I was technically kidnapped by my father when I was 9.
“I was technically kidnapped by my father when I was 9. My parents were going through a nasty divorce. During a court thingy, my mom accused my dad of being abusive (he wasn’t) and got the judge to mandate supervised visits and for him to not take us out of the county. Which sucked becuase he lived in the next county over.
In August, my dad’s father died. The funeral home was basically in between the county lines. My mom knew full well. She called the cops and reported my brother and I as being kidnapped.
Got pulled over a couple minutes from the funeral home. He got handcuffed and put in the back of the police car. He begged the officer. After a few minutes, the officer let him go.
This officer actually was the nephew (or cousin or something) of the judge that ruled over the divorce case. He called the judge and talked to him.
The judge was furious with my mother when he found out she called the police to report a ‘kidnapping.’ Almost had her arrested for it. He ended up dropping the supervised visits and lifted the county restriction (but still kept us on a state restriction).
Nasty divorce. Lots of lies and shit. Lots of bad memories.”
25. One day Mum returned home from work and we were gone.
“My parents had been in an unhappy relationship for a number of years (probably since its inception, once the lust wore off), characterized by mutual verbal abuse and the occasional physical outburst (they smashed each other’s windscreens one time). Dad was from Wales, he had pined for home for many years, had intimated to Mum that he wanted to return, and wanted to take her and I with him (but not my elder stepsisters). Mum didn’t trust him (wise woman), and hid my passport (not very well). One day she returned home from work and we were gone. She called the police and we were well on our way to the U.K. She followed, there was a long, drawn out court case and she ended up returning to Tasmania with me. Dad followed some time later, tail between his legs. They divorced within a couple of years and hated each other forever more. And we all lived happily ever after. (Not really, Mum died of brain cancer 8 years ago and Dad remains a ‘functional’ alcoholic).”
26. I was kidnapped by my grandparents when I was two and taken into Mexico for a couple of weeks.
“I was kidnapped by my grandparents when I was two and taken into Mexico for a couple of weeks. Thankfully they brought me back into the US with them when they had to run some errands here, and my parents were able to stage a rescue with some of their friends.”
27. Total time kidnapped was 4 months, out of which I went to school for two weeks.
“Honestly, I didn’t realize I had been kidnapped until years later when I was 25. When I was 12, my parents were going through a nasty divorce. Dad was an alcoholic, mom fled the situation but couldn’t bring me and my little brother with her (Dad threatened to shoot her etc). After they settled down and my dad realized mom wasn’t coming back, they did the whole custody thing. A week at my dad’s, a week at my mom’s. Well, every summer, we would go down to my grandparents’ farm in Florida. Dad didn’t want us to go that year, whatever. So we pack up and go to my mom’s. A couple hours later, we’re leaving to go meet my grandparents at the state line (mom never technically took us out of state.) Spent the summer in Florida. School time rolls around. No one mentions us going back. Grandparents enroll me in school. Ok, that’s kinda weird, whatever. The adults must be having problems. Spend more time at home than actually going to school because I started having issues with severe nosebleeds. Grandparents pack us up one day and take us to a secluded cabin in the Tennessee mountains. Was there for another month. They eventually meet my mom at the TN/NC line and hand us over. It turns out my mother had gone over to my dad’s house and the living conditions were disgusting. Trash ankle-deep and maggots in the fridge kinda gross. She concocted a plan to get us out, but had to give us back because they were going to throw her in jail for assisted kidnapping. Total time kidnapped was 4 months, out of which I went to school for two weeks. Got home and it was like nothing happened. No one ever mentioned it. It was just like a long vacation.”
28. He picked us up from the house and told us we were going on a trip.
“Parental kidnapping, sort of. When I was about 3 years old by my ‘father’—I say ‘father’ because shortly after I was born, my mother’s husband who is not my biological father, adopted my brother and I as his own children. Anyway, there was nothing out of the ordinary about it—he picked us up from the house and told us we were going on a trip. If I remember correctly, he took us to Puerto Rico or to the Dominican Republic (we are Dominican; he’s Puerto Rican). But my mother wasn’t there? We didn’t think anything of it, though.
Eventually, my mother came and got us a couple of days later and took us back home to Jersey. She divorced him shortly thereafter. I vaguely remember the details, but I do distinctly remember it was an Eastern airlines flight and the captain let me and my bro into the cockpit.”
29. My alcoholic father tried to kidnap my baby brother and I one evening after a spat with my mom.
“This happened when I was very little about 2-3 yrs old I wanna say. My alcoholic father tried to kidnap my baby brother and I one evening after a spat with my mom.
In a drunken rage he quickly pushed my mom outta the way and grabbed both me and my brother. He somehow managed to buckle my bro in and I was in the front seat without a belt.
While drinking recklessly thru the street he crashed the car. When the ambulance came they found me stuck to the dashboard with my forehead.
I still have the scar to this day.”
30. My mother started speaking about a new future in Poland.
“It’s amazing to see how often, in these situations, children become objects without their opinions and emotions considered.
When I was 12, my parents had just split (which was already messy enough) and this was the first summer holiday my brother and I had experienced since. Typically, we visited my grandfather (mother’s father), who lived right by the sea in northern Poland.
Days after our arrival my mother starts speaking about a new future in Poland, what moving schools could be like for us, the friends we could have (essentially wrapping it as a ‘forever holiday’ with educational benefits) and although my brother and I were suspicious we voice our objections and immediately moved on from the fantasy.
Apparently my mother hadn’t. Days later, as we’re playing on the beach, my father materializes above me, red-eyed and clearly exhausted. He doesn’t greet us and confronts my mother immediately, telling her she can’t take us away from him, asking why his calls were being ignored, threatening her with legal action. Up until then we were led to believe that he, more or less, no longer had interest in us and our lives, although the occasional calls (whilst back in the UK) would sometimes filter through.
My father drove 36 hours straight and walked the entire length and width of the beach (Świnoujście is massive) to find us and to make sure we were brought back to England.”
