Stacey was at the Patriots game at Gillette Stadium on Sunday when a man asked her to watch his daughter while he went to the bathroom. He was gone for 45 minutes and she needed to use the bathroom so she took the little girl with her. When she got back the man had called security and was accusing her of kidnapping his child. What would you do if a stranger asked you to watch his daughter in a crowd? Would you do it?
Jonathan: And today for panic button, we have Stacey. Hey, Stacey.
Stacey: Yeah, i was there, too. I was listening to you guys,and thought oh my God that happened to me to.
Jonathan: Okay, well, Stacey just jumped straight into it. We were talking yesterday about a father leaving his daughter with me while he went to the bathroom at the Patriots game. And he came right back and it was like a nice moment, honestly, for me. I was like, well, it’s nice. This guy trusted me. And what a community feeling.
Ayla: Like I’ve got your back.
Jonathan: Yeah. It takes a village type of stuff. It was nice. So you had a similar situation happen to you? What happened?
Stacey: Yeah, I didn’t really go that way. My boyfriend gets tickets, but he couldn’t go, so I took my mom. And so my mom left. She went to the pro shop, which I expected and whatever.
Ayla: Yeah
Stacey: There’s a guy near us and he’s got his seven year old daughter and he says I’ve got to go to the bathroom. Can you watch my kid? And I’m like, Yeah, sure. LAnd I’m sitting there, it’s 45 minutes and now I have to go to the bathroom. My mom’s not there. No one. He was gone.
Jonathan: He had you watch his daughter for 45 minutes?
Stacey: He’s gone. Yeah.
Jonathan: Had the game started yet?
Stacey: Yes it started.
Ayla: Okay. Whoa. All right, so then you had to go to the bathroom.
Stacey: I have to go the bathroom. And now I’ve got this little girl and, I mean, it’s fine. We’re chatting. No one else is around.
Ayla: I can’t pass off a little girl again to someone else.
Jonathan: To me. Just keep passing her down the line.
Stacey: That poor child.
Jonathan: She probably wasn’t the dad’s kid in the first place. It was like five people ago.
Stacey: It was so weird. And I didn’t even want to ask a little girl, where’s your mom? I don’t want to pry. Well, this is maybe a divorced. Dad. I don’t want to get into it, right? I didn’t want to ask, do you know your mom’s phone number?
Jonathan: Or dad’s phone number.
Stacey: Yeah.
Jonathan: So you took her to the bathroom?
Stacey: I took her to the bathroom. I had to go, and I was like, We’ll be fast.
Jonathan: Okay, so what happened?
Stacey: We got to the bathroom. There was a line. We even skipped the line because I had her with me. And I told her to stand right here. You’ve got to hold my coat. And I made her hold my coat through the door.
Ayla: You kept an eye on her. Even though it’s not your child. I thought that’s very responsible of you. Good job.
Stacey: Well, okay, but then we get back to our seats, and sure enough, her dad’s there and he’s freaking out. He’s got security, and he’s like, You kidnaped my daughter. And I said, Hold on. He’s holding the biggest beer you’ve ever seen, of course. And he’s got a hot dog. Okay? You left. Where were you? You went to go get a beer. And he’s saying you know, my daughter wanted a hot dog.
Ayla: Yeah
Stacey: And we eventually sorted this thing out. And then a lady who was a little far away from us said, Yeah, I saw what happened. But no one really wanted to get involved because nobody knew who I was. It was such a mess and I didn’t know what to do. We did sort it out.
Jonathan: And then the guy accused you of kidnaping his daughter.
Stacey: Yeah.
Ayla: Oh, that’s wild.
Jonathan: How did the daughter feel? Was she crying or anything?
Stacey: I think her dad’s just…. Can I say ****** on the air?
