Fruits Of A Misspent Youth?

After reading this story, I will definitely be a lot more careful about which of my children's friends have access to our house.

Police: Girls, 10, 12, Kidnap Baby For Ransom

Ransom Note Demanded $200,000

ENID, Okla. -- A pair of pre-teen sisters are accused of kidnapping an infant in Enid on Thursday, police said.

The 10-year-old and 12-year-old girl allegedly broke into a neighbor's home Thursday morning about 5:30 a.m., taking a 1-year-old baby while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said. A ransom note was left. According to police, they were accused of kidnapping for extortion and first-degree burglary.

Officers said the girls not only took the baby boy, Brandon Wells, from a crib in which he was sleeping, they also took assorted baby items, $20 in cash and left a ransom note telling the mother of the baby that "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."

Police said the note was signed "the kidnappers."

The mother of the suspects told investigators that she noticed the baby with the girls, who told her that they had "found the baby on the corner," police said.

The mother recognized the baby as belonging to the victim, who lives about a block away. The suspects' family and the victims are acquaintances.

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, police Capt. Dean Grassino said.

Wells immediately retrieved her child from the girls' home and police were called, Grassino said.

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.

Neither of the juveniles allegedly would give detectives any explanation as to why they took the baby, police said. The girls were transported to the Enid Police Department's Community Intervention Center.

Really, what were these girls thinking? Did they really think that they would get away with their little scheme? Did they really think they could make it through a whole day without someone noticing that they had a baby with them? 10 and 12 years old. They should still be playing with Barbies, not kidnapping their neighbor's child. Obviously the mother was paying some attention, when she banned one of the girls from her home, though I'm very curious as to why.

The question now, is what is going to happen to these girls? It's highly unlikely they'll be tried as adults, they're still in grade school, not even junior high. I can't even imagine what malice they could have had at their age. Even if they are locked up in a juvenile detention center, their age will likely get them out by the time they turn 18 or so.

I sincerely hope they are able to get help. They need someone in their lives that will guide them through this, and help them to see how wrong it was for them to do this. Pray that they will never even consider anything like this again.