I think it’s safe to say that our children being abducted by a kidnapper is every parent’s worst nightmare. Yet, we can’t put a protective bubble around our kids and accompany them everywhere we go. But what we CAN do? Is prepare them properly in self-defense and show them how to act if they ARE threatened. Thanks to some great preparation by their parents, four Michigan girls are alive and well today because they knew how to fight back against an attacker.
According to local news station ABC 12, the four girls, ages eleven through fourteen, had walked to a local Speedway convenience store last Friday night to get some drinks. As they left the store, they noticed a man following them, so the girls did as they had been taught and ran to a well-lit location—the Dollar General across the street. But the predator wasn’t deterred. He approached the girls and grabbed the youngest. Her older sister screamed in warning but it was too late.
“He said, ‘You’re coming with me.’ And like, he grabbed my face,” 11-year-old Allison Eickhoff told ABC 12. “This cannot be happening. I thought it was a test at first, but then I’m like, ‘This is real.'”
Then 13-year-old Lauren Eickoff, Allison’s sister, sprang into action. She used the only weapon she had against the kidnapper—her hot cup of coffee—and flung it in the attacker’s face. Then the other two friends joined in as well, all three of the girls attacking the man with punches and kicks while he still had a hold on Allison.
The girls’ efforts caused him to release 11-year-old Allison, but then he went for the oldest girl in the group, aged fourteen. He grabbed her by the hair, but once again, her friends would not give up the fight, and continued to scream, kick, and punch until he finally let go and ran away.
