Up Thinking About The 3 Amber Alerts Yesterday!

   So I have been up thinking about the 3 Amber Alerts that we had yesterday and how we could try to limit this number. I am so happy they all ended up being safe but I also wonder how many more kids go missing without the alerts everyday!?!? This really scared me and my son is 16 years old, so I could only imagine how it would be for those of you with younger kids with the way things are now days. I have done a lot of research all night to try to come up with as much information that I can and I want to share a few things that I did find.

   According to The U.S. Department of Justice there is an estimated 797,500 children (under 18 years old) reported missing in one year. In an average of 2,185 children being reported everyday. 203,900 children were victims of family abductions. 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions and 115 were victims of stereotypical kidnappings (Someone the child doesn't know who keeps the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, demands ransom, intends to keep the child permanently or ends up killing the child). The rest were mainly run aways or at a friends house etc.

   I found a couple of videos in my research that I will share with you. I don't do these to scare you (well I kinda do) but I want you to understand how important it is for us to really teach our children how to be safe at all times. John Walsh says it best when he says "I think child safety programs should be mandatory on the school curriculum, I think the safety of children should be as important as health care I really do, I think it is time to educate the children and parents in the schools". I couldn't agree with him more. I think we need to talk to our children about safety every day. I think there is always an opportunity that comes up that will let us throw in a safety tip to our children.

   Both of these videos share the sad reality of the world we live in and the dangers that our children face. We need to find things that we can do to try to prevent this from happening. We can teach our children all of the stranger danger tips/techniques, practice and role play with them and this will help a ton. We need to teach our children that just because they might have seen someone around the neighborhood or maybe even in the house a couple times that they are still strangers and they are still dangerous. Even if they were nice to our children we need to let our children know that its not ok to be around certain people without the presence of their parents. Please remember to take a look at the Stranger Danger Page that I posted as it has a lot of very valuable information in it that could help you in your teaching of Stranger Danger.

   I also found a few things that might help you with your child and keeping an eye on them. I will post them here with a description of what it is. Keep in mind these are just a couple of items that I looked into. There are plenty more items out there that will do the same thing, some could be better then these. I do research what I list and list only the ones that I find with the best reviews by other customers since I myself have never used them.

Mommy I'm Here

This device is for those of you that have younger children that aren't worried about your child walking to and from school as much as you are about them getting out of your line of site at a park or a play area at a restaurant. This device will sound an alarm if your child goes more then 25 feet away from you and works up to 150 feet. The way that it works is one piece fits on Mom/Dads key-chain and the other piece can be attached to the child's shoe/belt/backpack etc. Don't worry if you put it on the child's shoes as it is water resistant and long lasting. The link below is for a blue one but it does come in pink and brown as well.

Spot Satellite GPS Messenger UnitThis device is for those of us that have children that we cant be with at all times. This device is great it will track every move you do. It has special features on it such as a check in button and a 911 button. Its GPS makes it easy to track down your loved one using Google Maps. It is very resistant to most weather conditions and is waterproof. *Note* According to some of the reviews the 911 and check in buttons don't always work and the device is best used outdoors for those options to function. I also am not sure if there is a monthly charge or how much it would be but most GPS devices do carry a monthly plan. This is one of the lower cost GPS devices that are small enough to fit in your pocket or in a backpack making it easy to have on you at all times.

Cell PhonesOne of the cheapest ways for an older child would probably be their cell phone if they have one. A lot of cell phones now days have GPS on them that you can have activated so that you can keep up to speed on where your child is.
   The reason I bring up the GPS systems is not to necessarily spy on your child as much as to find them if something does happen. If they can have something like the SPOT or a Cell phone tucked into their pocket when they are taken away they can easily reach into their pocket and activate it or if it is already activated like the spot you can hone in on where they are for a speedy recovery of your child. 
   If your child has a cell phone you can have a police speed dial number that they can use and if they can reach it while the phone is in their pocket, they can call the police and start screaming about where they are like "Why are you driving my past Delta Bowling Lanes on 1600 Street?" and keep saying where they are even if GPS Is not active on the phone. All of these options can be valuable if used properly. Please if you take anything away from this blog at all, teach your kids the safety tips, techniques and practice, role play with them all the time as it is very important. 
   Please share your thoughts and opinions on this as well. I am sure there is so much more that can be added that I don't know, forgot or couldn't find. Thank you so much for reading. Take care.
 Remember to join the site by using the "Join" button on the right and invite your friends and family. The more people we reach the more lives we can possibly save. Thanks again everyone!!!

***AMBER ALERT*** 1/20/2012

We currently have 3 active Amber alerts. Clicking on the links below will take you to the active alerts page with the information on that alert. They are listed below.

Canceled AMBER Alert : The 11 year-old child was abducted by the 42 year-old suspect. The suspect entered his ex-girlfriend's residence on Taffy Court San Jose, CA, and fired off a couple of rounds from an unknown type firearm. The suspect took the child and fled the scene in a dark colored minivan, unknown make, model, or license plate number. The suspect is possibly in possession of an unknown firearm. PLEASE CONTACT THE SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT AT 408-277-8911. ***UPDATE*** NBC Bay Area has announced that after an extensive search officers found suspect Tri Le who was holding a knife to Taylor Vo head. When Le seen the officers he opened fire on them, Officers returned fire hitting Le and took him into custody. Taylor Vo's and Tri Le's condition is unknown at this time.  ***UPDATE*** Suspect Tri Le was fatally shot by officers according to NBC San Diego. The victim Taylor Vo was not harmed in the incident.


Canceled AMBER Alert : The 9 year-old child, Calysta, was last seen at Columbian Elementary School. Calysta was last seen wearing blue jeans, black jacket, blue polo shirt, gray tennis shoes and carrying a black backpack with pink straps. She may have gotten into a white passenger car, possibly a white Mercedes. ***UPDATE*** Great news this Amber Alert was canceled. This young lady was found at a Circle K convenience store this morning after escaping her capture. She was taken to the hospital with some injuries. Condition and extent of her injuries are unknown at this time. According to ABC 7 News The Denver Channel the suspect is still at large. For updates please check ABC 7 News Denver by clicking here.


Canceled AMBER Alert : The 2 week-old child was abducted by the 32 year-old suspect. The child was last seen in the area of the 1400 block of Village Boulevard in West Palm Beach, FL. The suspect may be carrying a laptop computer with a pink carrying case. PLEASE CONTACT THE WEST PALM BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT AT 561-822-1900 OR 911. ***UPDATE*** This child has been returned safely back to the arms of the family.

*I am so glad that all 3 of these story's ended up with a happy ending!*

Please share this with your friends and family the more people know about this and can spread the word the better the chances are of finding these children.
Thank you!

True Fire Story: Is it ever to young to teach Fire Safety?

Fire was accidentally set by a 5 year old girl on Tuesday Night 1/17/12 in Omaha, Neb.

   Since I just added the Fire Safety Page I thought I would share this story I just found. This happens all to often. This story is about a 5 yr old girl that was curious about a lighter. She accidentally set a fire in her 2nd floor bedroom. The Fire was so intense that one of the responding Firefighters Andrew Johnson suffered 2nd degree burns to his face as he tried to rescue her 3 year old sister that was trapped inside the home. Firefighter Charles Adams spotted the toddler from a first floor window. He was able to break the window out and brought the 3 year old out to safety. They believe that a fire down the street just days before may have sparked the child's curiosity for fire.

    All to often fires are started by young children due to their curiosity. A lot of Fire Departments have juvenile fire prevention programs available and a lot of cities put on safety fairs that will cover a lot as well. But until you can get to one of these it is very important to cover this as a parent and work with your children. We must work with our children constantly to ensure that they understand that fire is a tool not a toy. If we practice and role play with all of our safety tips/techniques these things will become 2nd nature to your child and they will be able to do these things without even thinking about them. Here is the link to the video on the fire I just mentioned http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epjq2SMTogo. Please take the time to watch it and to teach/work with your children.

Moving Along

   Well I am sure you can see that the blog is growing every day. Today I have added a few more things; To the right you will see an FDA Recall/Safety Alerts and below that a US Consumer Product Safety Child Related Recalls. These are RSS feeds which means they will be updated automatically so you will have up to date information just like the Amber Alert and Missing Child Alert that I added Yesterday.

   I have also added a new page called Fire Safety. On this page you will find tons of information to keep your family safe in case of a fire. It includes selecting the proper safety devices and how to create a plan for your family to get out of the house/building safely.

  As I mentioned before I will be adding information to the Blog on a daily basis. If you have anything that you would like to see added to the Blog just let me know I would be more then happy to add it. I am so excited to have this take off and cant wait to start hearing from you. I would appreciate any and all feedback that you have just leave a comment or send an email to kirbytheclown@gmail.com and I will get back to ASAP.

Remember to join and share the blog with your friends and family. Joining is easy just use the "Join" button to the right and use your existing Email account. Thanks again.

Few New Things!

  I added a few new thing to the blog yesterday that I would like to go over with everyone. I will go over all of them very briefly. If you have any questions please let me know. I will continue adding things to the blog and will update you as I add them.

   I added an Amber Alert Ticker to the top of the page (The white bar with scrolling text). This Ticker is made courtesy of support.amberalert.com. It is probably very noticeable but that was my point as I believe that it could help bring attention to as many of us as possible and maybe even save a life. If we can save even one person then I would be happy but wouldn't mind going for more!

   I added a Missing Children Alert Cases Feed to the Left hand side of the page. This is kept up to date by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I feel this is very important as well. I feel if we raise awareness we can make a difference, possibly find some of these children or make parents/guardians aware that this is not something that we can say "It wont happen to me!". This is Very Real and needs to be take seriously.

    I also added a Advertiser and Sponsors Page. The reason I added this page is to have somewhere that I can post all of my paid sponsors and advertisers as well as trying to bring everyone good deals. I will keep everything there that is a paid advertisement as I believe Honesty and Trust is what this site should be based on. The reason for gaining Advertisers and Sponsors is so that I can continue to do local events and possibly start offering my subscribers some deals on products to help keep their children safe. Please make sure you stop in on my Advertiser and Sponsors Page once in a while and see if there is anything of interest to you as they are really helping me keep this blog and my efforts of local events going.

*NOTE*
The Amazon list to the left is a compiled list hand picked by me on items I believe would be great tools to help teach and keep your children safe.

   I want to say thank you for your continued support in getting this blog going. It is not an easy job to get there but we will. Off to the right you will see a Join This Site button, If you don't mind join this blog and share it with your friends and family. You can share it by simply hitting one of the buttons below: Email, Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks again everyone!

Something Old, Something New

   Hello Everyone,

   The Old

   Yesterday I shared with you a website that you could find all sorts of crime in your area: https://www.crimereports.com/ . I was able to play around with it a bit and there's more then I wanted to see :-( . With that being said it brings up a good point of talking with our children about Stranger Danger and taking all of the safety precautions we can in our home such as making sure our windows and doors are locked every night and every time we leave the house. Remember to Practice, Practice, Practice the safety points in this site with your children so that it becomes 2nd nature to them.

The New

   Off to the left you will see an Amazon.com bar, this is a list of products that I personally went through and picked for teaching our children safety. I have not used all of them but I have done research on all of them and found good reviews on them. The only questionable one that I did find was the Child Identification card there is only one review on it and it was 1 star, However, this was because the individual thought this was a DNA test not a DNA sample and Finger Print Kit so I don't think we should count that one. There is one product that I did not put on the Amazon list that I would HIGHLY recommend and that is Eddie Eagle from the NRA. It is available on Amazon but it is more expensive then getting it from the NRA website. I have a link to it on the Firearm Safety page. 

*note* 

A Child Identification Card can also be downloaded and you can normally purchase fingerprint ink pads from a local office supply store. The website can be found on the Stranger Danger Page.

  I will be adding more pages to our blog here very soon as I think we need to cover Child Predators, Internet Safety, Water Safety, Safe Rooms, Fire Safety and much, much more. I think we can all work together to come up with a wonderful one-stop-shop for child safety and I would like your idea's on what you would like to have covered. I would also like to know if you would like to see a true stories page as well. Keep in mind that not all true stories have happy endings :-(

 

Please continue to support this page by sharing it with your friends and family on your social networking sights, blogs and word of mouth. I really do appreciate it as I would like to reach as many people as possible!

Wanted to share a website with you

   I have found a great site to get information on the crimes in your area. These will include Theft, Assault, Sexual offenses and much much more. It will allow you to submit tips about crimes you might know something about while remaining anonymous. Its simple to use here is the rundown of it.

Simply go to: https://www.crimereports.com/

  I want to add that you do not have to be a member to use this site, however you can become a member of the site by joining it in the top right hand corner where it says "join crimereports today". When you join you can have alerts sent to you via text, email or even get the RSS feed on things happening in your area. you can still post thing anonymously.

  The great thing about this site is it is becoming bigger and bigger. More and more agency's are starting to use it as it gives them more of an opportunity or civilians to give anonymous tips on crimes or to report crimes that might be happening in the area while staying completely anonymous.

Best of all its completely 100% FREE!!!

Here are the statistics for the last 2 years of this site, they have:

   Received 1.6 MILLION tips.

   Arrested 122,967 people

   45,529 fugitives caught

   10,959 stolen vehicles were recovered

   20,483 weapons were recovered

   $4.9 BILLION recovered in drugs and property

If that isn't success I don't know what is.

Please share this with your family and friends as well.