Sisters -- 10 and 12 -- allegedly kidnapped baby, demanded $200,000 in ransom

[Ping898]

How does it occur to kids that age to do something like this?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/06/young.kidnappers.ap/index.html

Preteens allegedly kidnap baby, demand ransom

Detectives arrested a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister for allegedly abducting their neighbor's 1-year-old son and demanding $200,000 for his return.
Brandon Wells was back at home Thursday night, hours after intruders broke into his family's residence and took him while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said.
"I've been doing this 18 1/2 years, and this is the first time I know of when a 10- and a 12-year-old kidnapped a 1-year-old," said police Capt. Dean Grassino. "It definitely ranks up there with the unusual crimes."
The siblings, who were not identified because of their ages, are accused of sneaking into Wells' home at about 5:30 a.m., taking Brandon and leaving a ransom note.
"If you want to see your son again then you won't call police and report him missing and you will leave $200,000 on the sofa tonight and we will return your son back safe," the note read, according to police.
The note was signed, "the kidnappers."
The plan began to unravel when the girls' mother saw them with the child, police said. They told their mother they had found the boy on the corner, police said.
As girls' mother tried to find Sheila Wells' telephone number, the 12-year-old returned to Wells' residence and told her it was the younger sister who was responsible for the abduction, Grassino said.
Wells immediately retrieved her child from the girls' home and police were called, Grassino said.

 

[Kacey]

I... I... I can't even think of an appropriate response - that's just heinous. I can't imagine how kids that age could come up with something like that.

 

[BrandiJo]

wow, those kids need some major help
​

 

[CoryKS]

Wow, the neighborhood block partys are going to be reallllly tense from now on.

 

[MA-Caver]

Funny thing, today I saw a billboard that said: Get to know your neighbors and the bad guys start to stand out.
Whelll, how do you know if your neighbors aren't the bad guys?
I agree that this is a very unusual crime in that the perps are not even approaching puberty yet. Can't imagine the girl's parents and what they're going through. Part of me feels sorry for them because I just can't phantom the idea of a child doing a terrible crime like this. It takes thought and planning (however naive) to do something like this.
The parents of the boy are going to have a hard time thinking about a babysitter from here on out. It's a scary thing and it erodes any sense of trust of having one of the young girls in the neighborhood to sit with their tyke for a few hours.

How would they deal with that?

 

[The Master]

Blame poor parenting, peer pressure, the electronic babysitter. Somewhere, the idea was put into their minds, and kids will act without fore thought, or thoughts of the ramifications of their actions.

 

[Ceicei]

There has been quite a bit in the press, both domestically and internationally, regarding very young kidnapped kids (for ransom or whatever reason), so it is possible with this situation, she thought she could get her revenge (the 10 year old girl was banned for undisclosed reason a few weeks ago from the lady's house prior to the kidnapping incident). I don't think the girl believed she would get all that money. Probably she did this more to scare the mom, but she evidently didn't think though the consequence of taking that action.

Wells said she knew the girls and had banned the 10-year-old girl from her home a few weeks ago, but did not say why.

This is from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19635663/

- Ceicei

 

[Phoenix44]

Developmentally, kids start developing a conscience around the age of 3 years. There's something seriously wrong with these kids, and probably their parents as well.

 

[stone_dragone]

When I saw this on the news, the girl's stepdad said "...kids will be kids."

I just about lost my damned mind when I heard him say that.