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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you read about a mom who stages the kidnapping of her own 6-year-old because, as she tells police, he’s too nice for his own good. Before I explain the horror this poor child had to endure at the behest of his mother, you should keep in mind that he thought it was real. So it was real. Which means that he will likely suffer the same traumatic effects as a child who was legitimately kidnapped by a stranger as well as the horror that his own mom — the woman who is supposed to protect him — would do something like that to him.
According to CNN, 25-year-old Elizabeth Hupp felt that her son was too nice to strangers so she, along with the boy’s grandmother and aunt, hatched a plan to have him “kidnapped” to teach him a lesson about “stranger danger.” Hupp’s sister, 38-year-old Denise Kroutil, asked co-worker, Nathan Firoved, to kidnap her nephew. He obliged and on February 2 waited for the boy to get off his school bus. Firoved lured the boy into his pick-up truck and drove off, telling the terrified child he’d never see his mom again and that he’d be “nailed to the wall of a shed.” When the boy cried, Firoved allegedly threatened him with a gun. Police say Firoved tied the boy’s hands and feet with plastic bags, covered his face with a jacket, and drove him to his own home where he was left in the basement.
Over the course of hours, family members scared the boy and at one point (according to authorities) his aunt pulled down his pants and shouted that he would be sold into sex slavery. The child was eventually untied and allowed upstairs where his family lectured him about stranger danger.
I can only be devastated for this sweet little guy whose only crime was being kind to others. Why a mother would knowingly put her child through the terrifying trauma of a kidnapping is unfathomable. I understand trying to teach your kid a lesson about stranger danger but, as is the case with those parents who publicly shame their child with sandwich boards proclaiming “I shoplift” or whatever they’re being punished for, this brand of parental punishment deserves its own punishment. Public humiliation, spanking, and now, kidnapping — it’s all unconscionable.
Thankfully, the boy eventually told a teacher about his ordeal and the teacher called police. He is now staying with a relative and his mom is charged with kidnapping and abuse/neglect of a child. She remains jailed on a $250,000 cash-only bond. His aunt, grandmother, and Nathan Firoved are also charged with kidnapping, felonious restraint, and abuse/neglect of a child and are in jail as well.
Frankly, I don’t know that his mom is fit to ever parent him again. Kidnapping is a life-altering ordeal, the consequences of which this woman clearly couldn’t fathom. Many kidnap victims never recover and regardless of her intentions, she doesn’t deserve to parent that child (or any child). Staging your son’s kidnapping is not just poor parenting — it’s an unforgivable offense.