Trinoma Scare

This warning landed in my email ... let us all be wary and be safe.

==============================

This is a message worth forwarding.

It's another mall incident we should be aware of.
I don't know how true it is but it could happen.
This is not about Trinoma but about how evil people prey on our
children.
It's good to share this with your kids so they will be more careful.

Subject
Fw: [HRPhilippines] Trinoma Incident

---

Always pray to our
Lord that our children our safe.

Dear All,

Most often our urgent prayers regarding our children are
for their protection. It is hard to think about other
aspects of their lives if we are worried sick over their
personal safety. Having to raise my children on my own I
had every reason to fear for their safety. So I pray for
the Lord's protection on a daily basis. I pray for their
protection from violence, molestation, kidnapping and
accidents. "Hide them under the shadow of your wings,
from the wicked who oppress them and from the deadly enemies who
surround
them."

Though my children have had their share of minor injuries
including a couple that required an emergency room and
stitches. Nothing ever happened to them that came close to being
kidnapped, held against their will or even victims of a hold-up until my
son Renzo was involved in one.

Monday afternoon, August 18 Renzo and 3 of his classmates
were going to practice at our home. Their meeting place was
Trinoma Mall at 1pm . Renzo was accompanied by his elder
brother till the time that Renzo was with his classmates.
Renzo already with 2 classmates, Ram and Aaron waited for Richard 3rd
classmate at Olympic Village 4th floor. While waiting they went thru
soccer balls and boxing gloves. Soon
after they received a text message from 3rd classmate
Richard who was now waiting for them at Seattle's Best,
1st floor. They proceeding to meet Richard and as soon as
they were complete they headed for our home but then a man approached
them
and identified himself as an employee of Olympic Village and even
flashed
an ID to the boys. The man
informed them that they damaged an item and that they should
follow him back to the store. The man narrated every move
the boys made and true enough one of them accidentally
dropped a soccer ball. Before leaving Seattle 's Best,
Richard the last classmate to arrive was told to stay behind
and wait for their return.

The man then brought the 3 boys to the 4th floor Cinema
Area. Ram and Aaron were told to give Renzo all their
belongings (3 cell phones including Renzo's, an IPOD, a
PSP and 2 wallets) and were ordered by the man to go to the restroom to
wash their hands before the investigation. The boys followed as ordered.
When they returned Renzo and the man was no longer there. Fearing for
Renzo's safety and their other friend they headed back to Seattle 's
Best.

Richard was still there but Renzo was no where to be found.
All three went back to Olympic Village and informed them of
the man who introduced himself as an employee and that Renzo
was missing. They were brought to the Trinoma Security
Office also at the 4th floor and reported the incident.

2:45pm at home, I received a phone call that every parent
feared, "M'am, this is Ram, Renzo's classmate, M'am
si Renzo po is missing. . . ." I couldn't believe what I
was hearing I asked them where they were, what happened and who was this
man they were talking about. I quickly headed
to Trinoma to meet with them. I was scared, thoughts ran
through my mind, all the what ifs and all I could think of
was Renzo's safety. I called on the Lord, my dad and my
mother-in-law to please keep my son safe. When I arrived at the Security
office, my prayers were answered, there was
Renzo, scared, pale, shaken-up and in-tears but most
importantly safe and unharmed.

Having been convinced that they indeed damaged an item at Olympic
Village,
Renzo was told by this man that he is
bringing him to the main office of Olympic Village. So they
both walked all the way to West Avenue until they reached
the building beside Caltex. The man told Renzo to stay
outside the building and wait for his return. An hour had
passed no sign of this man, Renzo approached the building
security guard and asked if he had seen the man he was with enter their
building and the guard said that no one entered their building at that
time. Upon realizing what had just happened, Renzo hurriedly returned to
Trinoma scared of thinking that the man might have returned for his
friends
and that something might have happened to them.

Little did Renzo know that from the time the Trinoma
Security office was informed of the incident Renzo was
already being paged constantly. The in-house detective of
Trinoma decided to wait for Renzo at Seattle 's Best
thinking that he would return there. True enough Renzo did
return and upon seeing this scared boy the detective
approached Renzo introduced himself and brought him safely to the
Security
Office.

Renzo and his classmate Ram was able to identify the man who was with
them
through the Security Camera of Olympic Village.. This man was following
them from the time they entered Olympic Village up to the time they went
to Seattle's Best. He watched every move they made and made sure that
the
boys had no accompanying adults with them.

As soon as Olympic Village releases the picture of this man to us I will
post it and make known to everyone the identity of this man who
momentarily created fear in our lives.

Angry? Yes I am angry; I want to knock-off this man should I see him.
I am
angry at myself for trusting my son will be
safe on his own. I am disappointed that after all the
serious talks I've had with my son on not talking to
stranger's still he did not obey. As a parent no matter
how much you want to protect your children, no matter how
tight we pull the strings on them, our children will still
continue to experience pain and still be careless at times.

The good news though was that my son, our sons, were spared and for
that I
am grateful to the Lord. I know I will have this constant fear over
their
personal safety; we can't be everywhere, we can't see everything, we
can't
know
everything but the Lord can and sure enough my prayers were answered.

Please pass this on to everyone you know who has teenage children daring
to explore on their own. Never mind if they get angry for not being
allowed to be on their own but at least you are sparing them from this
trauma. Also please do not allow your children to bring gadgets
outside of
their home as these serve as baits for hold-up.