YORK COUNTY, Va. — A mother who warned parents to watch their children closely after two people tried to kidnap her son said the attempted abduction turned out to be a "complete misunderstanding."
Mandy Doughtie originally contacted the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office after the incident took place in the Grafton Mobile Home Park Tuesday night. Doughtie said a man and woman drove into the neighborhood in a truck and tried to snatch her 7-year-old son, who’s autistic. He was outside their home playing with a friend.
“Someone can pull up and try to take my kid, it's not a good feeling,” Doughtie told 13News Now Wednesday. “He said the man picked him up and tried to put him in his truck."
Thursday, Doughtie posted on her Facebook page that the children were confused about what happened.
Doughtie wrote that she worked with investigators from the sheriff's office and found out that the man was delivering a mattress to a home next to the field in which the children were playing. The children were near the truck, and the man, who was the driver, picked up her son to move him away from the truck. The friend told Doughtie's son, "He's trying to take you," and the children ran away.
The 7-year-old told Doughtie that someone he didn't know picked him up. She talked to her son's friend. She told Doughtie that somebody picked up 7-year-old and tried to put him in the truck. The girl kicked the man, and they ran.
In the Facebook post she shared, Doughtie explained she felt she handled the situation the right way, given the circumstances, but she wanted people in the community to know that the incident was a misunderstanding, and there was no threat to anyone.
She finished the post: "Please no bashing of my son. He is 7 and autistic and he did feel threatened. He didn't know the person and when his friend told him they are trying to take you, it scared him."
The York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office also updated people on Facebook. In providing the update, the sheriff's office said: "We would also like to clarify that the claims on Facebook that there have been two or three similar instances in York County earlier this year are FALSE. There have not been any other reports of this nature this year."