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A 10-year-old boy shared how ‘scared and trembling’ he was when he ducked into a local shop to escape a woman who followed him after he remembered how his father taught him to find an adult if he was ever in trouble.
Sammy Green, a fourth grader from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was walking home from school last Friday when a woman tried to lure him away by offering to buy him food at a convenience store.
“She was talking about, ‘I’m going to Wawa. Are you going to Wawa? What would you get from Wawa?'” the boy said Good morning America. “And she was like, ‘Where’s your family?'”
Sammy Green, 10, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, escaped a woman who followed him after she remembered how his father, Sam Green, taught him to find an adult when he was in trouble
The fourth grader was walking home from school last Friday when a stranger started walking with him. The woman offered to buy him food and claimed to know his family
Surveillance footage shows the woman following him just before he ducks into Dani Bee Funky, his favorite convenience store
Sammy explained that he knew something was wrong with their interaction and was starting to feel uncomfortable.
“I was scared and shaking, so I thought of something real quick,” he recalls.
Then he remembered what his father had taught him: “If you’re being followed, just don’t trust them.” Just be casual and go see an adult.”
Sammy got it from Dani Bee Funky, his favorite store in the area.
The stranger was lurking outside the door as he walked to the counter and whispered something to the cashier, 17-year-old Hannah Daniels
The woman held the door open as he entered the store, but she did not follow him inside
The stranger was left lurking outside as he made his way to the counter and asked the cashier, 17-year-old Hannah Daniels, to pose as his mother because he was being followed
“I told her, Hannah, she’s been following me for a while,” he explained. And said, “I’m going to pretend you’re my mom.” And she said, “OK.”‘
Daniels told GMA that she initially thought the boy was with his mother before realizing what was going on.
‘I was just thinking about a regular contact with a mother and [her] son,” she said. “But the woman was standing in the doorway and kind of hanging there, and I saw she wasn’t coherent.”
Surveillance footage of the incident shows a woman walking next to Sammy on the sidewalk just before he entered the store.
The woman continued to hold the door open as he walked over to Daniels and whispered his plan.
Speaking to CBS Philadelphia, Daniels recalled how she told Sammy to wait in the back while she interacted with the woman, but he refused to leave her side.
Sammy’s father told WPVI that he “cried a lot” when he watched the security video
Daniels acted quickly and placed himself between Sammy and the woman, who was still holding the door open.
Speak with CBSPhiladelphia Of the terrifying encounter, the teenage cashier recalled how she told Sammy to wait in the back while she dealt with the woman, but he refused to leave her side.
Daniels calmly walked to the open door, pulled it shut, and locked it. Then the woman finally left.
Sammy’s father, Sam Green, has been candid about how difficult it was to see the surveillance footage of his son being followed.
“I cried every time I saw it,” he said WPVI.
Speaking to Good Morning America about the terrifying incident, Sammy recalled how he was “scared and trembling” when he made the quick decision to run into the store to get help
The family is not pressing charges against the woman, who was referred by the Pottstown Police Department for mental health care.
Sammy and Daniels are both credited for thwarting what could have been a possible kidnapping that day.
“I’m just so proud of my son for doing what he did,” Green told GMA.
Sammy now has a family friend who drives him home from school after the scare.
Pottstown police located the woman this weekend and she has been referred for mental health help.
The family is not pressing charges, but Green hopes his family’s story will encourage other parents to talk to their children about what to do if they are ever approached by a stranger.
“Think of each scenario and make sure kids know it and practice it too,” the father told CBS Philadelphia. “Practice your situations and scenarios just like fire drills.”