Mother issues warning after she says child was nearly abducted at concert

HOUSTON – A mother is warning other parents to be on the lookout after a man almost abducted her son.

“That person may have done this before. He may have known what he’s doing but he was just walking right out with my child,” said Christy Love.

Love and her 4-year-old son went to a free live music concert at Cactus Music on Sandman Street on Saturday afternoon.

More than a hundred people had gathered to wach country band Falstaf.

“After the performance ended, I took my child (to) the restroom. (When) we were getting ready to leave, I stopped and I was taking a picture of something (and) he ran down an aisle,” Love said.

She even managed to take a picture of her son running off, looked away for a few seconds, then couldn’t find her him.

“I immediately looked down the next two aisles and then I turned my head to the right and I saw him leaving the store and there was a man,” Love said. “There was a man holding my child’s hand and he was walking out of the store with him.”

Love said the man and the 4-year-old were walking toward the stranger’s car. When she and her friend ran outside to confront the man, he told them they were looking for her.

“I said, ‘My child was not looking for me,’ the man was leading him holding his hand,” Love said . “What (a) difference a minute or two could have made in that situation and I may not have ever seen my child again."

Love called the police and filed a report.

After she secured her son, she was able to take a picture of the man driving off, but didin’t get a good picture of his license plate.

She said she wants other parents to learn from her experience and to make sure they have conversations with their kids about stranger danger.

“Realizing that he’s almost 4 and that we haven’t really had those conversations about public safety and strangers, so that’s something I want to do,” Love said. “You don’t want to think that you have to have those certain conversations but you have to realize everywhere you go is not safe.”

"It's horrifying. I have a 5-year-old and 8-year-old at the store often playing in the same area,” said Cactus Music owner Quinn Bishop.

He said they have many family events and nothing like his has ever happened before.

"My take away, you have to be vigilant and talk to your children about stranger danger because it can happen while you're checking out at the register and you think your kid is right behind you,” Bishop said.

“For me, it’s a lesson on (how) quickly something can happen,” Love said.

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