Pierrepont Playground Parents Awareness Sign

By on March 28, 2012 10:34 pm in Brooklyn Heights

This sign was posted today on the entrance gate to the Pierrepont Playground.

Editor’s note: A story about this alleged incident was published by Boccoaland recently. BHB has not been able to verify any of the claims. We advise that all parents and caregivers use common sense when overseeing children at play. Children should be educated about how to deal with strangers. We suggest you review this guide for starters.

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  • ColumbiaHeightster

    No one is blaming anyone. It was an astute comment on the tone of the conversation. Nice.

  • She’s Crafty

    J, I’m not blaming the parents, I am one, and in fact I emailed Homer about this last week when it happened (and was irritated that it wasn’t put up, but no matter). I’m just saying I think the negative responses here come more from a frustration with the overflow of kids in the neighborhood recently, and less from an “I don’t care about a potential kidnapper” school of thought.

  • Master Of Middagh

    I don’t have anything against folks with kids, just alarmists.

    The facts that we do have available suggest that this was an innocent person preventing two children from leaving the designated play area. Is it more likely that this was a foiled child abduction? It sounds like random grownups keeping kids from straying out of the gate without their parents is a much more common occurrence than the emergence of a predator. Therefore, I see no need to treat this as some all points Amber alert bulletin- especially in our already paranoid society.

    I always chuckle when I hear some old song with a lyric like: “I sit and watch the children play…” I think- this guy’s gotta be kidding! They’re gonna put his name down on a list! I wouldn’t dare directly observe a child what with the climate and all. I’m sure if one of ’em tugged on my jacket and asked me the time of day or how to find their way home, I’d probably run away screaming in the other direction for fear of looking suspicious.

    I really hope the guy everybody is so concerned about comes reads this blog or some other source and comes forward so certain parents in this neighborhood can sleep a little easier in the beds that I’m sure they wet…

  • She’s Crafty

    @MoM, I think the only thing anyone ever wanted was for the story to be related back when it happened, and parents could make their own decision about whether it was alarmist or whether they needed to be more vigilant about watching their kids. If someone, whether he was trying to be “helpful” or not asked my kid if he was allowed to leave the playground (and let’s remember that the children were inside the playground at the time, not outside of it, and that the gate was bolted, so why on earth would he be asking if they were allowed to leave the playground) and I didn’t know him I would be alarmed.

  • GHB

    ABC, when you saw the guy at the sprinklers, did you do anything about it? I’d have taken phone pics and sent them to the police.

  • Master Of Middagh

    @She’s Crafty-

    But “why on earth” would the fellow know the gate was bolted? And it sounds like the children were only inside the playground at the time because this good Samaritan discouraged them from leaving.

    If this blog were to commit itself to cover every insubstantial rumor of somebody thinking somebody else is suspicious, then this blog would turn into nothing but such baseless accusations. How about we have a post here about the guy who sleeps in his car that somebody mentioned on the open thread? That’s kinda suspicious! And how about that guy that likes to talk on his cell phone outside at six am (which turned into a big deal on another thread)? Let’s have a post about him because that’s not normal!

    I wonder if you would be alarmed if your child wandered out of the playground, got hit by a car and nobody did anything to stop them because they were afraid you’d insist on there being a blog post about how creepy you think they are for daring to address your child?

  • Master Of Middagh

    Let me add- God forbid such a horrible thing such happen to anybody! I hate to envision such scenarios, but they’re necessary for discussing concepts at times…

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    Master,
    So now the guy is a “good samaritan?”
    We have been told that if you “see something, say something”.
    This woman saw something that she deemed suspicious and she said something.
    Good for her!

  • She’s Crafty

    @MoM are you familiar with the entrance to Pierrepont Playground? The gate is about 8 feet tall with a bolt that you have to slide to open it.

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