Media Hysteria Watch: Local News Show Freaks Out Over Footage of a Car Briefly Stopping

Under the headline ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CAUGHT ON TAPE, an
Oregon Fox affiliate gives us this
account of a girl who noticed a car was slowing down behind her
as she biked, “locked eyes” with the driver, decided he was about
to try to kidnap her, and then rapidly rode up her driveway to get
away. This triggered her home’s motion-activated cameras, so we
have not-quite-dramatic footage of a car stopping at the end of her
driveway for a moment and then moving on. And that, apparently, was
enough to justify a local news report:

“It’s all speculation, of course,” the girl’s mom notes to the
reporter at one point. Then she plows ahead with her ideas about
the terrible things the driver might have been thinking as he
briefly paused his car.

It turns out that the ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING was, in fact, a man
trying to find a boat shop. Lenore Skenazy has
posted the sheriff’s report
on the incident:

The vehicle and driver of the suspicious vehicle
reported to the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, March
31st has been located and is of no further interest. The Sheriff’s
Office would like to thank everyone for their concern and
assistance in locating the suspicious vehicle.

Family members located the vehicle at a McMinnville business on
Saturday afternoon, April 5th. The driver and owner of the vehicle
was cooperative with Sheriff’s Deputies, and stated he had driven
to the Sheridan area to look for and purchase boat parts and became
lost while looking for the business. Sheriff’s Deputies were able
to confirm the driver and his dog had been to the area on the day
of the reported incident looking for the boat shop, and ultimately
made a purchase there.

There’s no word on whether this purchase was caught ON TAPE.

Bonus statistics: In 1999, according to the most recent
Justice Department report on
the subject that I’m aware of, 797,500 children were reported
missing. But the number of “stereotypical” kidnappings—defined in
the report as crimes where a stranger or slight acquaintance
“detains the child overnight, transports the child at least 50
miles, holds the child for ransom, abducts the child with intent to
keep the child permanently, or kills the child”—was just 115.