That news broke out here as well. If there's anything that would make my hair stand on end and squirm, it would be news of child abductions.

When my daughter was 7, she was grabbed from me by a gypsy in Vienna. We had gone shopping and I heard my daughter scream for me. I turned around to see what had happened and caught sight of my daughter being dragged away by a woman. I dropped everything and ran after them before the woman could get out of the shop that my daughter and I had gone in. The most frightful thing was, as I tugged and pulled my daughter, along with others who rushed to help, the gypsy would not let go of my daughter even when my child kicked and scratched to get away. She was determined to abduct my daughter and frantically hissed, spat and cursed me in Romany. She would not let go even when other people slapped her about in the hope that the woman would release her grasp to shield herself from the blows. It was only when the police arrived that she let go of my daughter. The gypsy never ended up in prison as they treated her as one with diminished capacity which, I would still argue, was put on to escape criminal liability. It's very easy to feign any semblance of madness.

What I remember most from that experience was the fear in my daughter's eyes and that haunted me for a very long time. It still churns my stomach when I hear of child abductions. Even typing about it now, many years after that event, makes my hands very clammy. There but by the grace of God...