Alpena Township in Michigan sounds like a good place to live, since it gives residents easy access to nearby lakes and rivers, where they can fish, swim, and boat during the summer months.
It’s a safe, clean, and quiet place, many residents say, so people would believe it’s a good idea to get a house there to live with their families.
However, things might not be as good as many people expect sometimes.
You see, statistics show that Alpena crime rate is a little higher than the average.
And, unfortunately, Margaret and Andrew recently found that out when someone tried to kidnap their little daughter when she was in the backyard.
One day, their 8-year-old daughter was trying to find mushrooms in the woods behind her house, while her 13-year-old brother, Owen, was playing games inside the house.
Their mother Margaret was at work, and their father, Andrew, was also away from home because he had to help his brother.
“That was the one day I was not home for some reason,” Andrew told Up North Live.
And, unfortunately, in those cases, it seems it’s when bad things happen.
A young male suddenly put his hand on the girl’s mouth so that she could not ask for help, and he grabbed her around her waist in order to kidnap her.
But, thankfully, the girl found the power to kick him and tried to run away.
At the same time, she kept screaming, so that her brother could hear her.
“I was playing games and I heard my sister screaming, but I thought she was just messing around,” Owen said. “The second time, she screams again like ten seconds later and I’m like ‘what’s going on?'”
So, Owen knew that something was wrong.
He looked outside the window and he saw a male trying to kidnap his sister, so he knew he had to help her.
The only weapon he could use at that moment was a slingshot – and it did actually work.
Although the boy admitted that he never had good practice with a slingshot when he was a kid, he made it work that day.
He hurt the person who wanted to kidnap Owen’s sister twice, on the head and chest, which made him run away leaving the young girl behind.
The siblings called their mother, who at first wasn’t really sure what had happened, but she heard the word “kidnap” and immediately called 911, while she was running back home.
As she was going home, she also called her husband, who couldn’t believe something so scary had just happened to his children.
The dad told Up North Live:
“When I got the call from my wife, we were on our way back to town already, kind of in disbelief. Because you figure it wouldn’t happen in this town. But once I got there and I seen all the cop cars, it was more of a reality check.”
Thanks to Owen’s move, his sister is safe, while the 17-year-old suspect was easily found by the police since his head and chest had been hit by the slingshot.
What a terrifying story, but how blessed the girl was!
The parents are so proud of their teenage son, and Owen is now hailed as a hero!
Listen to the family talk about the scary day in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
