Child Nearly Kidnapped Claims Mother - AsiaOne

[HKDLFAN]

Source: Mum claims daughter nearly kidnapped in HK Disneyland

This is really heartbreaking news (assuming its true of course).

A Singaporean woman claims her daughter was nearly kidnapped by two women in Hong Kong Disneyland last Tuesday.

Ms Gigi and her husband were queuing at a space-themed restaurant with their daughter behind them at about 4.15pm on June 21.

In an email to citizen journalism website STOMP, Ms Gigi said the couple had turned their eyes away from their daughter for an instant to look at the menu.

When they turned back around, the five-year-old girl was missing.









They searched the restaurant frantically and after five minutes, they spotted the birthday girl at an "enclosed corner with two young women (pictured above)".

The couple then walked over to their daughter and sat down with her. They had allegedly tried to smile at the two women.

The two women however were behaving suspiciously, said Ms Gigi.

"We were smiling and trying to look friendly but the two women were behaving suspiciously, all the while looking down or away...as if they were trying to hide their faces".

Ms Gigi's husband managed to grab a shot of the women by pretending to take a shot of Ms Gigi.

The couple questioned their daughter after they left the restaurant. The girl said that the women had asked her to follow them.

Ms Gigi said, "While we have to admit that the words of our little 5-year-old daughter may be inaccurate, and that we may be over-sensitive, this incident could be either a simple case of misunderstanding, or a case of attempted child abduction.

"We feel that it is better to be safe than sorry, and so we want to share this with all parents to be careful with their children."

This is going to hurt the park's reputation severely. I remember something similar happened at Ocean Park last year and the newspapers went crazy with the headline.

[nish221]

I really doubt this one.

Most kids at 5 year old know not to follow strangers. And the so-called abductors must be nuts to think that they can get away from a theme park easily where there are controlled entry-exit points. Finally, the parents didn't notify the CMs at all?

[Witches of Morva]

ORDDU: These days a witch could easily believe something like this is possible. The world has become a disturbed place, indeed. A while back I even had my boyfriend stolen from me by some plain Jane type who simply wouldn't leave my Tarzan alone!!!

[HKDLFAN]

Heres HKDL's response to the article on AsiaOne:

Source: Hong Kong Disneyland says safety of guests top priority

Hong Kong Disneyland's response:

Dear Sir / Madam

I refer to your recent article entitled "Mum claims daughter was nearly kidnapped in HK Disneyland" on June 28. I would like to clarify a few points related to the incident that you relayed in your article.

The incident concerned took place on June 21, 2011. We received an email from Ms. Gigi on June 27 about the incident.

Straightaway, the head of our security team contacted the family on June 28 to follow up with the concern expressed by the family.

According to Ms. Gigi's husband, when they were visiting Hong Kong Disneyland, they found two women talking to their daughter.

However, Ms. Gigi's husband told our head of security that they could not confirm their suspicion about the women.

He also said that his family enjoyed their visit at the Park and plan to visit again.

We fully appreciate the couple's concern and thank them for their information.

We have tried our best to understand the situation and explore what we can do to follow up, but it is quite difficult given the lapse of time.

We also understood from Ms. Gigi's statements in your on-line posting that the family thought that their suspicion might just be a misunderstanding.

Nonetheless, we thank Ms. Gigi and her family for reminding us to be vigilant about the safety of our Guests.

We would like to assure Ms. Gigi and other Guests that Guest safety is our top priority. There have not been any reports of a missing child since our Park opened in 2005.

All of our Cast Members are trained on how to provide immediate assistance to Guests if they are looking for their children. In addition, if Guests should need further assistance in locating their children, they will be quickly directed to Guest Relations inside City Hall, on Main Street, U.S.A. in the Park.

Such requests for assistance will be sent immediately via radio to all Duty Managers and Security Hosts around the Park for their urgent attention and action.

We also earnestly request Guests to approach our Cast Members immediately should they encounter similar matters, so as to allow us to provide speedy assistance and resolve the matters.

Given that we take security matters seriously, we would like you to publish our response to complete your report.

Thank you again for your attention.

Yours sincerely,
B.C. Lo
Vice President
Public Affairs Hong Kong Disneyland

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

Mother: Child Nearly Kidnapped...

Disney: The incident concerned took place on June 21, 2011. We received an email from Ms. Gigi on June 27 about the incident.

The parents where in no hurry there...

[Koutesu]

That's an odd article. The timing of the letters, the parents doubting whether or not there was an attempted kidnapping, it is possible it really was just a misunderstanding. Plus if these two women were really looking to kidnap a child they probably would have had a plan to get the girl away from the resort quickly. To be inside the park, not even close to the park's exit, is sloppy, and that's not including the fact they still have to get to the trains or other transportation.

[LittleImagineer]

Huhh, weird story. There are so many things that could happen at a theme park. It's possible the little approached the two women or the two women thought she was lost? Who knows? At least she wasn't kidnapped. I'm sure Disney does their best to keep everyone safe.

Plus, the story seems fishy! The woman had her husband pretend to take a picture of her while he really snapped pictures of the two women? If I were mom and had suspected that two women were going to kidnap my kid, wouldn't I at least tell someone or freak out on the ladies? Perhaps it's possible, I don't know

[MrHatboxGhost]

This story is odd, but in the end, be glad the girl is safe, right?

[SilverM]

Well, this story is strange. But let's face it - did the parents let CMs know that they couldn't find their child? No. Did they tell their child what to do if they got seperated? No, they did not! So it couldn't have been that the girl wandered off. It's a simple guessing game of whether the parents are irresponsible or they were just really, really interested in the menu instead of their child (which is highly unlikely).