STRANGE CASE OF KIDNAPPING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2375, 5 January 1922, Page 4

STRANGE CASE OF KIDNAPPING.

A strange case of kidnapping, for no apparent reason, is reported from Melbourne. A ten-year-old lad named Alexander Talbot returned to his people recently, and was surprised to find that he was posted as lost. He told his story. The little chap was leaving school at noon on a Friday, when a woman stopped him and said that she had just left his mother, who wanted him to stay Avith the strange woman for a feAv da.ys. He went with her confidently, and was taken into the city. The woman took him to a coffee palace, where the two stayed over the Avoekend. On the Monday morning Ihe kidnapper sent the child home again. The boy said that the woman bought him new clothes, and took him to a theatre. He had a Aveekend of ice creams, -.pocket money, and theatres. There was a visit to a circus, and there were merry-go-round rides. The Avoman had a camera, and took snapshots of the child. The child returned to his people on Monday morning, very surprised to find that while lie had been enjoying himself they had been searching for him everywhere with the aid of the police. It avus apparent that the strange Avoman merely Avanted to mother the child for a while and give him a holiday according to a boy’s idea of Avhat a holiday should be.