PICTOU – Two Waterside seniors say they were accused of attempted child abduction after they waved at a child while driving by.
Patsy McCara and her husband Gerald say they were detained for nearly two hours and questioned by the RCMP about the incident, which occurred about two weeks ago by the Pictou Sobeys.
Patsy can well recall turning up Veteran’s Drive in Pictou as the couple returned from her doctor’s appointment in New Glasgow. They were headed to pick up some groceries when her husband saw a little boy on a bike beside the Sobey’s store. Gerald waved his hand at the child as they drove by.
“We parked and both got out of our truck, my husband went into the tobacco shop and I went into Sobeys and picked up several articles,” Patsy said.
When she returned to their truck, Gerald was nowhere in sight, but an RCMP cruiser as parked immediately behind their red Silverado. Patsy put her groceries in the truck and climbed aboard to wait for her husband to return.
It wasn’t until a passerby asked why her husband was in the back of the RCMP car that Patsy realized something was wrong. She got out and spoke to an officer, who told her the Mounties had received a complaint that identified their truck as being involved in an attempted child abduction.
Patsy, stunned, was told to sit in the truck and wait. A few minutes later, she said, four other RCMP cars had surrounded the vehicle.
“It was embarrassing,” she said. “We were right in front of Sobeys and people were coming and going, looking at us like we’d done something really drastic. And all he’d done was wave at a child.”
Thirty minutes later, police told Patsy to follow them in their truck to the Pictou detachment. Gerald was put in one interrogation room and questioned for over an hour, while Patsy says she was locked in another room and questioned for about 30 minutes.
“They locked me in – I didn’t even realize it until the officer took out his key to unlock the door – and I had to speak into a recorder and tell them everything about the day,” she said. “My husband was locked in another room and had to empty his pockets and take his hat off, they basically searched him.”
Eventually, they were allowed to return to their Waterside home. But the embarrassment from the experience still bothers the McCaras, who are both in their seventies, greatly.
RCMP Sgt. Phil Oliver says the investigation stemmed from the result of a complaint of an attempted abduction.
“Police went to the scene, where the alleged abductor was present, as well as the person who made the complaint,” Oliver said. “We had probable cause for an arrest and brought the person back to the detachment and interviewed that person and any witnesses.”
In the end, however, no charges were laid.
“It was one person’s word against another,” he said. “We were satisfied no abduction took place. It was a pretty ordinary and by the book investigation, as far as I was concerned.”
Patsy says they won’t let the experience keep them down, however.
“We’ll continue to wave as we go in to get our package of tea and our Asprin,” she added.