LIBERTY, Mo. (WDAF) – Some parents in Liberty, Missouri are sharing a video to remind others about the potential danger of strangers interacting with young children, even in your own backyard.
“Definitely a terrifying situation,” said the father, who didn’t want to be identified for safety reasons.
It happened on Monday afternoon. The family’s backyard Ring camera shows a stranger in a hoodie walking by the family’s fenced backyard, presumably on a shortcut to a nearby apartment complex.
“You don’t live at our house,” shouts the 2-year-old boy in the video.
At that point, the man approaches the fence with what appears to be cash in his hand. The hooded stranger then reaches over the fence and sounds as though he is offering the two-, four-, and six-year-old children cash to buy candy.
“It would be one thing if he just kind of said something to my kids in passing,” the father said. “But it crosses the line when you reach over the fence and start trying to offer them cash or whatever.”
The young children wisely tell the man that he shouldn’t be talking to them without their parents present.
The man then pushes the issue, apparently urging them to take the cash and give it their mother. After the children repeatedly refuse, and keep their distance from the fence, the man eventually leaves.
“Alright, you have a good day,” he says.
“My main concern is the fact that he could’ve been like a child predator or something,” the shaken up dad told FOX4. “He could’ve been using the money to try to lure my son closer to the fence or something like that.”
The family called Liberty police but said they were told that, because a specific crime wasn’t actually committed, there was very little they could do.
FOX4 called and emailed Liberty police for a comment on this story but did not hear back.
(Information from FOX4KC.com)
