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A man narrowly escaped abduction charges after he mistakenly picked up the wrong girl from a New Jersey school.
Courtney Durr was waiting to be picked up by her mom's friend after school in Gloucester City, N.J., on Tuesday. At the same location, Art Deaner was supposed to pick up his friend's daughter, Courtney Fetters.
When Deaner arrived and saw Courtney Durr, who looked vaguely like the girl he was told to pick up, he called for her to come inside his vehicle.
"I told her I was looking for Courtney,'" said Deaner. "And the young girl said her name was Courtney."
"I got off the bus and he pulled up and he asked if there was a Courtney," said Courtney Durr. "I said, 'Yeah.' My crossing guard let me go and I went with him."
Courtney Durr knew she was being picked up by her mom's friend so she reluctantly went inside. There was only one problem: Deaner was supposed to pick up 6-year-old Courtney Fetters, not 9-year-old Courtney Durr.
Deaner hadn't seen Fetters in some weeks and the girl recently got a haircut so he assumed Durr was the Courtney he was looking for.
"My girlfriend called me and said, 'Where's Courtney?'" said Courtney Durr's mother, Pam Durr. "I said, 'Well she's supposed to be at the bus stop waiting for you.' She said, 'She's not here.'"
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Deaner said he started to realize something wasn't right when he talked with the girl about a recent vacation.
"He was like, 'You weren't with Aunt Mary in Maine?'" said Courtney Durr. "No, I would never have been in Maine."
"I know Courtney was in Maine for two weeks," said Deaner. "I had to turn around and take her back. I got the wrong Courtney."
Police, however, were already on his trail. They pulled Deaner over and arrested him.
The crossing guard noticed that Durr went inside a vehicle that she didn't normally go in. Fearing an abduction, the crossing guard recorded Deaner's license number and alerted police. After asking him several questions, however, police say they realized it was all a mix up and didn't file charges.
Courtney Fetters was found safe and sound while Courtney Durr was reunited with her mother.
"I forgive them!" said Pam Durr. "They didn't know any better because they haven't seen her in a while."
There was also a lesson learned.
"Don't go in someone's car when you don't know 'em," said Courtney Durr.
While Deaner had trouble recognizing the right Courtney, he tells NBC10 he'll always remember what she looks like now.
"I won't forget," said Deaner. "I'll take a picture."
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I would definately suggest all parents have a password system with thier kids. If someone else is supposed to pick up the child they need to know the current password. As long as the kid knows they are being picked up ahead of time they can ask for the password. Personally though, Im not sure I would ever arrange for someone who is unknow to my kid to be the one to pick them up, but thats just me.
I want to know how that happens????? How does Glouster City schools allow a 6 year old and a 9 year old to be picked up by people who are not their guardians without showing ID? It's not like they are in high school and were just standing out on the school's curb. They are in Kindergarten and 3rd grade for God sakes! That school dropped the ball big time. That is insane and absolutely negligent on their part. THIS is how kids disappear!
same thing happened to my daughter 2 weeks ago and she is 6...it was a bunch of bad coincedences....a man shows up asking for 'jonathon' (my neighbor i take to school with my daughter...both 6) he raises his hand...the asst teacher who is new let them go...and we panicked!!! luckily they must have driven around for a while before they recognised the streets...school blamed us but there is no id precedures there and i had given a note on who was picking them up!!! Thats how it happens.....
Good thing this guy was honest. I'm glad no charges were filed but seriously, the little girl said the crossing guard let her go with him. I can say this wouldn't happen at my daughter's school because in this situation, he would have had to go through the carpool lane and the mother would have sent a note with the his name on it.
Nobody walks. You are either a bus-rider or car-rider.
Note to parents: Don't send someone who barely knows your kid to pick them up!!!! And they should all realize they have to go inside the school to talk to personnel about picking up a child who is not their own. Where is the common sense?
LOL only the crossing guard had a head on their shoulders.. Who sends somebody to pick up your kid when they don't even know them.. Not one parent did in this story but 2
Here, you technically have to be on an authorized pickup list to pick up a child from school.
I've been a babysitter/day-care provider for several children of friends. We've always had the proper paperwork filled out. And it has NEVER been checked. I just pull up in front of the school to the "pick up" area, wave at the kid from the car, and they run over and hop in. There are teachers on duty, of course, but they have no idea who is a parent and who is a family friend and who is a day care provider. There's no way they can check every single adult every single day against the list, check ID, and release the child. Some run to buses, and they could easily get on the wrong bus. Some walk home by themselves, and nobody stops them. When the bell rings, it starts 15 minutes of barely organized chaos.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, goes to show you just how easily a potential heart wrenching tradgedy can unfold.
same thing happened to my daughter and her friend 2 weeks ago!!! Of course it wasnt in the news and everything turned out ok apart from minor heartattacks...what gets me is these people getting told to pick up someone from school that they dont know and never seen before.
Geesh, at my son's school you have to display in your windshield a school-issued placard with the student's name and grade on it in order to pick up a child. Other wise, you have to go into the office and present your ID, and they DO check to make sure you're on the child's pick-up list (they even check my name against his info card when I've picked him up early for the dentist!). Thank goodness this was a simple mistake. I hope this incident causes the school to look into stricter pick-up policies.
.....and that's why you have a 'secret' word. You don't get into anybody's car, even if they say 'Mom sent me', if they don't know the secret word.
That man that picked up the wrong kid was very very lucky he didn't get slammed to the ground and hurt real bad before he had a chance to explain. The parent and the school are responsible, the school should have been notified and the child kept in the admin office until the person presented adequate ID to pick up the child. When I am to pick up my grandchildren the school is notified and then they check to make sure I am on the pick up list and even though the know me know I still present ID and sign them out.
Good thing my kids don't go to the same school as yours!
At least he was not beaten and pepper-sprayed, when he got arrested. I came close to a situation like this twice, when I happened to pass through a neighborhood(s) at the wrong time. Once, a man matching my vague description pulled a gun on a young woman and tried to abduct her. She broke free and ran....giving a description to the cops. Along comes me, music playing loud, on the way home from work (I was 19), and half the neighborhood was out there: "THAT'S HIM! HE'S THE ONE!!".
Lucky for me, I had a beard, and he did not. I almost got shot. Surrounded by about 9 cops, guns drawn, I had NO IDEA why I had been pulled over. It was VERY scary, but they were satisfied it wasn't me, after about 10 minutes. Stuff happens. I was not mad at the cops, just terrified. Lookin' down .357s, when no one will talk to you - well, I got rattled a bit by that.
This whole thing is an example of dangerous parenting. I have always told my kids that I will never send anyone to pick them up that they do not know or recognize. I always emphasize that they are never to get in a car with someone they have not met. If, for example, I needed to have another student's parent pick them up, I would call the school and have the school let them know who would be picking them up.
You may find this quite shocking but there was a time, not so very long ago, when a small child getting picked up from school by the wrong neighbor would not elicit calling out the National Guard and sending out widespread alarms. I'm not even an old geezer but recognize that the days of Mayberry RFD are long, long gone. Funny that simpler and safer times actually existed; it wasn't even fiction. Nowadays, you'd be nuts not to impregnate your child with a GPS chip and trust absolutely no one! What a sad, sad world this has become :(
I know exactly how he feels. I was at the grocery store once and a little hand reached into mine. I looked down and a little boy was there. I tried to shake his hand loose, but he was focused on what was going on around him. I could not get his attention. He must have confused me with his mother, who was standing just a little ways down the isle, looking back at us, laughing her head off. Eventually she called out to him, he saw her, looked up at me, and we both blushed beet red. Thank god for that!
Abduction charges? There has to be intent and bad faith for abduction charges to even be relevant!
I'm just surprised that the school allowed the guy to pick the child up. When I used to pick up my younger sisters from school, even though the office staff knew me by name, they still checked my ID because it was part of their protocol. And I was on the list of approved people to pick them up as defined by our parent.
Fortunately, no harm, no foul. Kudos to the crossing guard for being awake and aware.
If they knew their ages, how do u get a 6 and 9 yr old confused ? There's a big difference between 6 and 9.
If you don't have a lot of experience with kids, judging their age isn't as easy as it may seem it should be.
did ya see how old he was... give the man a break.. probably hasnt been around enough 6 and 9 years olds to tell the difference. and besides kids are all different sizes it can be hard to tell sometimes
I am glad that common sense prevailed.
The simple use of last names, when unsure, could have avoided this entire situation.
Courtney? Courtney DURR??
Maybe these mothers shouldn't have their so-called boyfriends picking up their young daughers from school. How can a mother trust her "boyfriend" with a child he can't even differentiate from another?
According to a poster above, it was reported locally that the man's wife was in the car with him when they picked up the wrong girl, it wasn't a "boyfriend."
it would seem this story belongs on fox news and the two idiots who just happen to leave out the Facts that it was a man and his wife who pick up the wrong child should be working for Rupert Murdock that the type of journalism I'd except from them not NBC
people need to stop comparing what it was like when they were a child, it is a much scarier world we live in and we can't throw caution to the wind. This poor girl trusted the crossing guard, this is a person she see's every school day, of course she is going to trust her. The schools have to take some responsibility, here in elementary schools the parent provides a list of who the kids can go home with if someone new picks them, the parent need to call the school and give them a name and that person needs to have a picture ID, teachers walk their kids out front and wait for them to be picked up, if the kid doesnt recognize who is picking them up they dont get in the car. The parents need to take responsiblity too, if a friend is picking their kid up from school, they need to tell their child who is picking them up. Its sad that today we have to be so careful but I would rather be careful then be sorry. I hope this teaches the public to be more cautious..
Uhhh What's the deal with the crossing guard! A random guy pulls up and says "Is there a Courney?" and they just let the girl go with the guy knowing that that wasn't the normal person she goes with???
Being a parent and having been privy to my childs school policies on "other-than-parent" members picking up my child from school, I can understand something like this happening unintentionally. In support of those policies and those unfortunate and unintended mishaps from happening, I'd recommend giving the child to be picked-up and the person picking said child up...a simple "Duress Code" shared with the parent, child and other party picking the child up. It doesn't have to be all fancy or anything, just cater it to the age of the child respectively. When the person approaches the child to be picked up, the friend verbally "challenges" the child with a word (or phrase), the child will then respond with the code word/phrase." This should be a practice which should be familiar to the child prior to application....in other words, practice this with your child many times while at home, when your apart for other activities etc.....so that its familiar. This is just a suggestion that I've practiced with my own child in the past as a way of teaching them security.....just like teaching them what to do in case of a fire or other emergency in the home......(call 911), if their physically on fire...(Stop/drop/roll)...etc. Thanks for your attention to this entry and let's all be vigilant when it comes to protecting our children!